4/7/26 Mini Mock: Questions 3 - 5 (November 2025 21)

1 Environmental activism takes many forms nowadays. One of its most widely stated aims is to encourage us to change our behaviour to ensure that the world is habitable for our descendants, the people of the future. However, we have no obligation to future people, since we should only consider the needs of people to whom we have a responsibility.

2 We cannot have obligations to people who may never exist. The future is unknown to us. Some scientists even claim that our species may become extinct in only a few decades. So we cannot be sure that future people will ever exist. Even if there will be people in the future, we cannot be sure of what will actually benefit them. Trying to make decisions that will benefit future generations would be like driving a car with your eyes closed.

3 Many people do not have enough food, clothing, or proper shelter. So the current population of the world still has basic needs that are not being met. Globally, we have the resources to solve these urgent problems. A present need is more urgent than a future one. Therefore, we should focus on meeting the needs of existing people.

4 The world is affected by pollution, vanishing natural resources, overpopulation, and other urgent problems. For at least a century, people have been relying on fossil fuels and harmful chemicals, and deforesting large parts of the globe. So these problems have mainly been caused by the activities of previous generations. As many environmentalists claim, our behaviour is making these problems worse. However, previous generations clearly did not consider the needs of future people – in this case, us – so neither should we.

5 It is tempting to state that previous generations were unaware of the harm they were doing, but we should avoid making this claim. Environmental experts were fully aware that serious problems would eventually arise from our careless treatment of the world in which we live.