Hey 42!

[The Lost One]

Parts of California are greener than the Utah desert and California has some nice vacation spots. However, I would prefer to live in Utah because of the lower cost of living, lower crime rate, less smog, fewer earthquakes and forest fires. ect...

However, I can't live in Utah because it has way too many half-hearted Mormons and too many relatives. So I consider both California and Utah to be nice places to visit, but I don't want to live in either state at the moment.

[Oldie Black Witch]

I think the less smog thing is a myth. We had "unhealthful" air yesterday before it dumped two inches of snow last night.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I'd be interested in seeing some sort of numbers on the smog thing. I've not been to california, but all I know is that the air over SLC is *always* brown.

[Spriggan]

The reason for SLC and LA's smog has to do with the surrounding mountains, in both cities cases the dirty air can't disperse/escape.

[The Lost One]

Dr. Ardene Pope in the Econ department at BYU does a lot of research on smog in the SLC and other areas in the US. He might know which is worse but I believe that SLC isn't as bad as LA, San Diego, or San Fran. Not to say that air polution isn't a problem in any of these areas.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

It's very possible (probable, even) that you're right, jsut because of hte sheer volume of pollution sources in the major cali cities vs. SLC. But clean air isn't on my list of "why Utah's great." (I actually don't have that list, besides TWG members and Church leadership, and a few scenic natural locations, it would pretty much be empty)