▶ Your Answer :
In the reading passage, there is sufficient support for the author’s claim that the ecosystem of the Everglades in southern Florida are being ruined persistently due to environmental issues. However, the professor gives several reasons as a rebuttal to the author’s point.
First, the professor insists that the water pollution from the chemicals has been decreasing over several years. What he talked about is that new government regulations regarding the use and disposal of the fertilizers are restricting the amount of chemicals in the fertilizers which infiltrated into the soil of the Everglades. Therefore, these strict rules forced farmers to use the fertilizers which do not have hazardous substances. This casts doubt on the reading passage’s claim that the Everglades has been destroyed due to the water pollution.
Second, the professor contends that the issue of soil loss is in the process being remedied. He mentioned that the local officials and citizens have begun to restore the soil in the Everglades and the results are quite promising. The restoration of the soil is even moving faster, though it would take a long time, the process will eventually return the Everglades to the original condition with the reintroduction of water and native plants. This counters the reading passage’s assertion that the soil in Everglades is being lost at a rapid rate.
Lastly, the professor argues that the efforts to return developed area in Everglades to the natural state make it much less likely that endangered species and this ecosystem will become extinct. According to him, Florida government recently purchased a large tract of land in the Everglades which was used as a sugar plantation. And the government have a plan to convert the land back to the wild marshland. Once this plan is accomplished, the endangered species such as Florida panther will have large habitats increasing their chances of survival. This refutes that the reading passage’s suggestion that human development in the Everglades is one of the problems regarding the destruction of the Everglades. |