Cleaner air if we want it

Few of us notice air pollution around here. Ocean breezes sweep it away. Even the stench of the Columbus County paper plant rarely wafts across the region anymore.

But the pollution is here, coming our way from the west, rising from coal-fired power plants and motor vehicles. We breathe gases and particles, which are particularly hard on the young, the old and those with lung problems.

If summers get hotter, which many climate experts fear they will, we'll breathe even more ozone, a key component of smog. A new study by researchers at Yale, Columbia and Johns Hopkins calculates that by mid-century, Wilmington residents might face an additional four dangerous air days a year.

There's only so much one state can do to ease a national - no, an international - problem. But with the federal government doing little of consequence to reduce pollution and greenhouse gases, some states are trying to do their bit.

A number say they'll adopt the clean-air requirements that California places on cars and trucks. The more states that do that, the more likely automakers will get serious about reducing the pollutants their products spew.

North Carolina, which faces not only more air pollution but also the loss of coastal property to rising seas, would be wise to join those states. If carmakers can do it for California, they can do it for us.