You can't look around when you're looking up,
so we've had a look around for you
It is not everyday that you’ll find The Cloud Appreciation Society petitioning for LESS clouds, but that is exactly what we have just done on a UK Government website.
We signed up to a petition urging the Prime Minister to take positive action to counter the increasing proliferation of aircraft condensation trails – the long man-made clouds that form behind high altitude planes.
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that contrails result in increased levels of high cloud, which tend to trap in the sun’s heat, increasing surface temperatures in the regions they cover. Lower clouds have the opposite effect – of reflecting away much of the sun’s radiation. Indeed, the effect of all cloud types taken as a whole, seems to be a cooling one. The tendency of contrails to spread out and lead to increased levels of high, ‘cirriform’ clouds is in danger of distorting this effect.
