While I agree in some respects, I also enjoy breathing and not have asthma.
When I was a kid, the sky was brown for most of the year. Not hyperbole. You could taste the air once you came back from somewhere above the inversion layer, Big Bear, Mt Wilson or San Jacinto for example. Even coming back from out of town w/ the windows up, like Vegas or Tucson, you could smell it once you opened the door. There were a few days during summer where if you blew your nose, your snot would be brown or black.
Kids would go outside and play during recess and come back in wheezing. Later when I was older, they could just cancel recess completely and have the kids inside.
The only time in recent memory the sky has been brown and you couldn't open the windows to let in fresh air was during those major wildfires. All the blue sky days are really because of CARB, especially for the numerous valleys scattered around the state. Sure, it makes things difficult to mod cars, but when it comes down to it. I enjoy breathing freely much much more than a bunch of hp and a nicer sounding exhaust. Even just being able to drive w/ the sunroof open or top down and not hacking up a lung makes driving much more enjoyable.
