Californians Now Agree: Cars Cause Smog

Golden State Favored Other Explanations for Half a Century

For the first time after nearly a half-century of polling, a majority of Californians now agree that driving cars causes smog.

"I can't begin to tell you how important this is and what the implications are for California," said Graham Overton, director of the Rollings Poll. Four times a year since 1955 the Rollings poll has asked residents of the Golden State to pick the biggest cause of smog.

In the latest statewide poll, 53 percent of respondents said the automobile was the cause.

"The number blaming cars hovered at 48 and 49 percent for several years," Overton said. "Finally now, it's ticked over the 50 percent mark and at 53 percent we have a clear majority that is greater than the poll's margin of error."

Air pollution first began to appear in the Los Angeles basin in the 1940s. By the time the Rollings Poll began in 1955, smog was a daily factor in the lives of Angelinos. The thick air has been a fact of life in most of the state's big cities ever since.

In the early years of the Rollings Poll, the majority blamed smog on "Communist pinkos and subversives." In the 1960s, blame shifted to "atomic bomb tests" and later in the decade to "man on the moon and drug addicts."

In the 1970s a majority blamed "rock music and excessive permissiveness." For several years in the 1980s "aliens from outer space" were blamed, followed toward the end of the decade by "television and godlessness." Smog during the 1990s was caused by "rap music and Mexican wetbacks" early in the decade and then "lying perverts in Washington" as the twentieth century drew to a close.

In the last three years, Overton said, smog was blamed on "Michael Jackson and Madonna."

During the half century of polling, the automobile always managed to cling to a spot on the blame list, Overton said. In the first poll, fully 10 percent of respondents blamed the car. The number ranged from 15 percent to 35 percent up until 2000, when it rose into the 40 percent range before topping 50 percent this month.

Why the shift now? The explanation is simple, Overton said. "It's Arnold, Governor Schwarzenegger. Every time a movie actor is governor, there's a couple of years when Californians face reality. It doesn't last long, but it presents an opportunity for change."

Are Californians now open to doing something about cars and smog?

"I doubt it," Overton said, shaking his head. "A couple of years from now something else will be blamed for smog. Terrorists are already moving up the list. They'll probably be the cause of smog before long."

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