October 2004 LSAT Section 2 Question 13

The solution to any environmental problem that is not the result of government mismanagement can only lie in major ch...

Alex on July 1, 2020

Why is D Wrong?

I understand that A is correct, but it seems like D is saying the same thing. If most environmental problems not because of government mismanagement are ecological problems, then doesn't that mean that most ecological problems are therefore caused by consumers? It almost feels like D is the contrapositive of A. What am I missing? Thanks!

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Shunhe on July 2, 2020

Hi @mahosmar,

Thanks for the question! So let’s take a look at what the stimulus is saying. If you want to solve an environmental problem that’s not related to government mismanagement, you have to change consumer habits majorly. But that happens only if changes are economically enticing. So unless solutions are made economically enticing, then few serious ecological problems will be solved.

Now we’re looking for something to assume that’ll make the conclusion follow logically. And let’s take a look at (D), which says that most environmental problems that aren’t the result of government mismanagement are major ecological problems. Well, (D) is talking about the non-government-mismanagement problems that are major. But we also need to know about the environmental problems that are the result of government mismanagement. Because if most serious ecological problems come from government mismanagement, then the conclusion might be false. And since we can assume (D) and still have the conclusion be false, then it can’t be the correct answer, so we can eliminate it.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.