It was once thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cit
If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be under water.
Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature—a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. At present we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report prepared by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very likely). Perhaps, if we are very lucky, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now.
As is pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution ______.
A.caused widespread damage in the countryside
B.affected the entire eastern half of the United States
C.had damaging effects on health
D.existed merely in urban and industrial areas