Question

Since all root systems need nitrogen, all trees need nitrogen. Think about what would happen to you without oxygen. Would you want that to happen to trees? Describe the step-by-step process that you must follow in order to identify the implicit premise and evaluate the validity of the argument. Is the argument valid? Is it sound?

Answer 1

The big premise in the argument is the link between trees and oxygen. It's the assumption that, without trees, humans would have insufficient oxygen to survive. Trees DO produce a lot of oxygen, but the majority of it comes from photosynthetic organisms in the ocean. Killing off all of the trees would certainly be disastrous, and ecosystems would collapse, starving us to death in short order