medium · GMAT Verbal

Passage: The 'nitrogen crisis' of the late nineteenth century was a direct result of the industrial revolution’s demand for agricultural productivity. As urban populations swelled, traditional methods of soil fertilization, such as animal manure and crop rotation, proved insufficient. The world became dangerously dependent on finite deposits of Chilean saltpeter. In 1909, Fritz Haber successfully demonstrated the synthesis of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen, a process later industrialized by Carl Bosch. The Haber-Bosch process effectively 'unlocked' the atmosphere, providing an inexhaustible source of synthetic fertilizer. While this innovation averted global famine and currently supports nearly half of the world’s population, its ecological legacy is complex. The runoff from synthetic fertilizers has led to widespread eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems, creating 'dead zones' that threaten marine biodiversity. This technological triumph illustrates the double-edged nature of 'technofixes,' where the solution to a resource constraint introduces a new set of systemic environmental challenges. The author's attitude toward the Haber-Bosch process can best be described as:

1. Skeptical that the laboratory synthesis of ammonia was a genuinely original and novel innovation at all.
2. Critical of the invention’s outright inability to resolve the nitrogen crisis of the period.
3. Unreservedly enthusiastic about its decisive role in averting global mass starvation worldwide.
4. Appreciative of its necessity while remaining cognizant of its detrimental environmental consequences.
5. Dismissive of the ecological concerns, viewing them as wholly secondary to the basic needs of human survival.

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