DAVIS COUNTY—Davis’ proximity to Salt Lake City is traditionally one of the many reasons why people choose to live here. It’s close enough to have access to great shopping and dining, but, far enough away to avoid the big city lifestyle. However, this proximity also brings with it the winter hazards of the inversion. 

Though there really aren’t many more people or cars in Salt Lake and the surrounding area than in other comparable parts of the world, Salt Lake’s geography, particularly the Salt Lake Valley, creates a unique situation, and though beautiful, the mountains don’t help when it comes to pushing pollution out of the area. 

During an inversion, regular conditions of warmer temperatures at lower elevations with lower temperatures at higher elevations are reversed, or inverted. The air on the valley floor becomes colder, often with snow reflecting heat, rather than absorbing it. This causes warm air at higher elevations to act as a sort of lid, with the mountains acting as the walls of a bowl, trapping pollutants in the valley. 

Storms, wind, and other conditions that could clear out this pollution are curtailed by the mountains as well, meaning that residents are stuck with the conditions for longer. It’s a miserable situation and causes health risks and conditions similar to smoking tobacco. But what can be done about it? People have to work, don’t they?

There are many solutions to the issues surrounding inversion, some short term, and others much more long term. In the short term, businesses can look at air quality each day, and, on the days when it’s worsening, employees, where able, can telecommute, and work from home. Employees that need to come in for one reason or another, can take advantage of public transit, which, in the Salt Lake Valley, is a step ahead of other areas in the region. 

While not ideal, these solutions provide an alternative to the hundreds of cars on the road on any given day, which, in many cases, only contain the driver. The long-term solutions, sensibly, closely mirror the short-term solutions, and could provide valley-dwellers in both Salt Lake and Davis Counties a healthier and happier winter season. 

One such solution is moving to a more remote setting for industries in which it is a feasible option. The pandemic in 2020 showed the world that working from home, telecommuting, and working remotely is much more viable than initially thought. People were just as, if not more productive than they were in an office setting, and it ended up saving many businesses money, saving them from having to rent office space. Shifting to a hybrid or remote schedule where possible would save many people time, money, and the need to drive to work, adding to the pollutants in the air. 

Another long-term solution involves beefing up public transit. In states like New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, public transit is everywhere. They have it down to a science. Many people who work in Manhattan, live in New Jersey, which is slightly more affordable, but commute to the city because they have the option to. They can take various trains, busses, and other transportation without using their own cars. 

With the announcement by the International Olympic Committee that Salt Lake City is a “Preferred Host” for the Winter Olympics in 2034, many are hoping for a similar boom in public transit as was seen in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics. If similar funding can be secured, and plans made in time, an expansion of things like TRAX and FrontRunner as well as other UTA programs and innovations could be a huge step in the right direction for combatting the inversion.

For the time being, it seems as though fossil fuels are here for the long haul. They’ve been the primary source of energy for centuries now, and many have strong feelings either in favor of or in opposition to them. Finding alternative energy sources for transportation, generation of electricity, heating homes, and more would allow for a much more permanent solution to the smog and haze that plague so many this time of year. 

It’s a long process, but one that, at some point in the future will be necessary. Fossil fuels, no matter how plentiful, are finite. Whether it’s 100 years, 1,000 years, or 100,000 years, the reserves of coal, and oil will dry up, and humanity will be left with no other option but to find something more sustainable, and renewable. Why wait until the crisis presents itself when humanity is on the cusp of so many other great alternatives?