The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a journal on environmental issues."Over the past year, the Crust Copper Company (CCC) has purchased over 10,000 square miles of land in the tropical nation of West Fredonia. Mining copper on this land wi

The author of the letter believes that actions of the Crust Copper Company (CCC) for unearthing copper in purchased land of West Fredonia will inescapably cause pollution and ecological catastrophe. This statement is based on evidence which is connected with the conclusion by several assumptions which should be carefully scrutinized in order to give a comprehensive estimation of the argument's soundness.

To begin with, the arguer claims that mining of copper in obtained land will inevitably tail contamination of the environment. At the same time, CCC will be operating within existed laws which restrict and control company's actions thus probability of contamination of the territory perhaps is exaggerated. Moreover, CCC may use modern ecologically friendly technology which causes no harm for the nature. However, even if we accept that mining of the minerals may pollute the surrounding territory, probably it will not cause the disaster. The word disaster means that consequences of it are irrevocable and damage is grave. The information which was used by the author does not support this statement and a mere pollution of land does not equal to an environmental catastrophe.

Furthermore, the argument claims that CCC's activity will unavoidably cause the extinction of several endangered species which live on West Fredonia. The statement is based on assumption that these species live on the bought area, at the same time, these animals may inhabit removed area of West Fredonia and corporations’ mining activity will not cause any damage for them. The argument might have been stronger had the author given us data that these rare animals are residents of the purchased by CCC territory.

Finally, the originator proposes to boycott the products which are made with CCC's copper. But copper is a material which is rarely used in its pure state. CCC's probably sell the unearthed copper to other companies and thus to be effective the campaign should expand on the products of these companies' as well. Will these actions enough to prevent such disasters? Perhaps the answer is "no" and it is required to boycott products of other firms which hurt the nature of West Fredonia.

In conclusion, the arguer believes that actions of CCC will cause the disaster and serious damage; but this belief is not bolstered properly and seems to be unwarranted. Moreover, actions to which the author calls are perhaps insufficient and will not bring expected results.