GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | Re: A council of ecologists in Hawaii have concluded that much of the curr

Would is the past tense form of will.

Because it is a past tense it is used: to talk about the past. to talk about hypotheses – things that are imagined rather than true.

Here the use of would ( in hypothetical context ) is not applicable, hence we may reject option (D).

Hope this helps..

---