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Experience how contrails impact the climate

16 points| protontypes | 2 years ago |map.contrails.org | reply

8 comments

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[+] meowitzer|2 years ago|reply
Unfortunately due to Poe's Law [1] and the fact that "contrails are the government spreading chemicals" is a prevailing conspiracy, I cannot take this seriously. Can someone knowledgeable on the subject weigh in?

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

[+] mlyle|2 years ago|reply
This is a well-known effect with oodles of articles on the topic. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=contrail+global+warming...

On one hand, it's a short term phenomenon. The effect of mitigations takes effect very quickly (and is mostly governed by the planet's thermal mass). Mitigations might be relatively easy, too (just taking it into account when planning flights would make a big difference).

On the other hand, contrails have a pretty immediate warming effect and aren't a slow process like CO2 forcing. Contrail forcing isn't making the overall problem any better, and if there's any tip-over in methane emissions, etc, from warming, contrails could be a part of the near-term trigger.

[+] ciconia|2 years ago|reply
> What can we do?

Hmm, I don't know, how about flying less?