california: I realize a lot of it has to do with population density, but other densely populated places like New York and Chicago don't have the same levels of pollution. Anyone know why? What are the major contributors to pollution in California?|||Actually, the air is cleaner than it was in the 70s due to catalytic converters being required on all cars, a special blend of gasoline which costs more, awareness of air pollution by the public and "spare the air" days push to use public transit, better public transit, higher standards for California by state agencies regulating pollution. You cannot generalize about a state this size. It has higher CO虏 in valleys where the particulates get stagnant like Los Angeles because of its topography. You get some in the bay area if there is an on-shore air current instead of the normal off-shore which sweeps all the pollution away. Pollution is less from industry than it is from CO虏 since we have lost so many industries since the 60s. Diesel engines do contribute to air pollution with the huge number of trucks on the main highways moving freight. We dont use trains much to carry freight, which I think we should.|||What's pretty sad about all of that is that the normal winds in this part of the world brings "clean" ocean air over California, while Chicago and NY deal with air that has passed over the Great Plains and industrial Midwest, respectively. Don't worry, California. Jerry will succeed in driving the rest of the businesses out so that your air will be pristine. You won't have any work and your state will be bankrupt, but your lungs won't suffer.|||Those regulations don't matter, but they could never. You could up the enforcement but then you'd only make the matters worse. Somewhere guys in [pajamas are talking about pumping crap into under the ocean and how they can make lots of money off it. You still haven't figured it out yet, have you?|||Geography of LA is a big factor. The city is surrounded by mountains all almost every side, with an ocean breeze keeping the air trapped in this bowl. The pollution has no where to go. NY and Chicago are in more flat terrain, so the pollution can dissipate.|||As others have mentioned geography plays a large role and the geography induced pollution issues of SoCal are also common to all of the bowl cities of the West Here's a great explanation for that phenomena http://daphne.palomar.edu/calenvironment鈥?/a>|||I can't read this. I I d I'll probably have a embolism or aneurysm or something from laughing too hard. otoh, too much is better than not enough.|||No no no, you got the cause and effect wrong Cause: High Pollution Effect: Tough regulation|||Smog in the San Fernando Valley.