So rather than waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt the new standards and tell us what we already know - that we're failing to do enough to deal with deteriorating air quality as our population grows - this state should get serious.
That means research into how small particles find their way into our air and into our lungs.
That means driving less and buying more fuel-efficient cars, particularly hybrids.
That means using mass transit.
That means cutting down on fireplace fires and barbecues and trading in old wood-burning stoves for cleaner-burning ones. Ditto for old lawnmowers, snowmobiles and outboard engines.
Experts say there's a lot we don't know about how tiny particles are formed in the chemical soup that is our air, particularly in the valley bowls along the Wasatch Front. That is why more research and monitoring are necessary.
But let's face it, we know the usual suspects. No. 1 is the automobile and how most of us drive everywhere, even when we don't need to.
We've got to get a handle on the family car, or we can kiss breathing cleaner air goodbye.
Changing the course of our auto-dependent society is no small matter. It entails rethinking our urban planning, as Envision Utah and others have done. But while the big picture can be daunting, we should not lose sight of the small things. Like reducing our own small trips around town.
That's another thing the experts say. We won't win this battle with a grandiose scheme to remake society. Rather, we will make headway by doing lots of small things.
Like investigating how much could be accomplished by installing a new generation of home furnaces and water heaters. We need to do more to eliminate conventional diesel engines, not only on highways but in locomotives and other nonhighway equipment.
Most of the low-hanging fruit has been plucked, but there are a few obvious things left. The Intermountain Power Agency should be denied its proposal to build another generating unit with 25-year-old coal-burning technology.
But more than ever, it's going to come down to all of us.
