Passage Discussion

[judy.kang020]

Can someone please explain the passage map for this one?

[ohthatpatrick]

I would see this as a "Problem/Solution" type passage.

The author is discussing a problem and evaluating potential solutions.

It's a one-sided discussion, so I wouldn't think of this as having a Scale, but the author is generating reasons for / against the likelihood of a carbon tax.

Here is how I would think of the Passage Map:

P1 - Introduce carbon tax and mention why it's seemingly a better option than several alternatives.

P2 - Introduce the real thesis "we want to do a carbon tax, but it's TRICKY to accomplish". Although you can somewhat easily calculate how high you'd have to make the tax to achieve the desired reduction, you'd be basing that on several assumptions / past figures, so it's not clear whether those calculations would pan out as expected.

P3 - One of the most crucial yet sketchy things the carbon tax would be based on is widespread international cooperation. But you might not get that widespread cooperation because some selfish countries would be trying to gain an advantage by NOT lowering THEIR carbon standards.

P4 - The idea that a country might just do a carbon tax on its own is unlikely: that country would be making a big sacrifice by itself, while every body else gets to benefit from the sacrifice.

More succinctly and generically:

P1 - Introduction to one possible solution to a problem

P2 - Solution initially seems plausible, although there are many fuzzy factors.

P3 - Solution is probably going to be screwed by one specific factor (lack of sufficient cooperation)

P4 - Alternative solution (going about it alone) is not realistic.

Hope this helps.