Probably worth adjusting the title -- air quality is not just a measure of pollution. In this case, both SF and Portland are filled (unfortunately) with wildfire smoke, rather than a man-made pollutant...
As climate change was a key driver of these fires and those in Australia earlier this year, then I feel like it's perfectly reasonable to say this is man made pollution.
Coal and oil are also a "natural" fuels, but we burn those too and we say it's man made pollution.
I would say a more interesting data point there is that Jakarta air pollution on a normal day is the same as San Francisco air pollution on a historic wildfire day.
SF air pollution levels on an average day is very low.
Came here to exactly say this, living your life in a non-emergency situation in some parts of the world like Delhi is close to current living conditions in the Bay Area (+surrounding states) under unprecedented wild fire in the modern history!
emergency is becomingly unfortunately normalized with regards to wild fires in the western part of the country. also, “living your life” infers a generalized comparison and if that’s the case you must consider the destructive impact (homes/businesses) of the fire that lives on well beyond the actual event. - bad air quality from pollution isn’t destructive in that manner
