Cloudspotting by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Gavin Pretor-Pinney is founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society (which now has over 62,000 members) and internationally bestselling author of The Cloudspotter’s Guide, The Cloud Collector’s Handbook and A Cloud A Day. Winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, he is a TED Global speaker with over 1.3 million views. He very kindly wrote this for Woodhill Park Journal.
If you spend a few moments with your head in the clouds it will help keep your feet on the ground. That’s what we’ve always argued at the Cloud Appreciation Society, which I founded 19 years ago because I felt clouds are an under-appreciated part of nature. We have members based in 120 countries around the world who are all united in the belief that clouds are not something to complain about – far from it – but the most evocative, dynamic and poetic aspect of nature. The clouds bring beauty to a sunrise or sunset. They are an ever-shifting backdrop to our lives, Nature’s abstract art, and yet they are so omni-present that it’s easy to forget they’re even there. We think that if you choose to pay more attention to the sky at moments throughout the day it will have a beneficial effect on your wellbeing. To look up is to lift your perspective from the concerns of terra firma.
Clouds haven’t made me rich! But I committed to running the Society as a full time occupation about 8 years ago, and that has worked. In this sense, it is a demonstration that if you pursue even the most seemingly aimless activity in life and you do it with honesty and purpose, you can create a business out of thin air – literally!
1. What are your favourite clouds?
Lenticularis clouds. They form around mountains and they look like flying saucers.
A cloud gasps in amazement as this UFO takes off over Iraqi Kurdistan.
This is an example of: Our favourites | Sunset / Sunrise | Clouds that look like things | Cumulus | Altocumulus | Cirrus
2. How did you create the Cloud Appreciation Society?
I started the society in 2005. This was after I gave a talk at a literary festival in the southwest of England. It was my first ever talk about clouds, and it was before I had written any books about them. I thought it would attract people to the talk if I gave it an unusual name, so I called it ‘The Inaugural Lecture of the Cloud Appreciation Society’, even though I had not started the society. Everyone came up to me afterwards and said that they wanted to join, so I decided I should start one.
3. Why did you decide to defend the clouds?
In Britain, and in many parts of the world, clouds get a bad press. People like to complain about them because they think clouds are nothing more than obstructions between us and the Sun. Of course, the energy of the Sun is what drives the weather and so what creates the clouds. I started the society because clouds are the most dynamic, evocative and poetic aspect of nature, and so someone needs to stand up for them!
4. What are the clouds to you?
They feel like expressions on the face of the atmosphere, and I think it is important for us to be able to read the significance of these expressions. The clouds are a part of nature that anyone and everyone can enjoy. For this reason cloudspotting is an activity you can do anywhere and one that brings people together.
A sunrise with Alpenglow on the Sierra Nevada, as seen from Independence, California, US.
This is an example of: Our favourites | Sunset / Sunrise | Stratocumulus | Virga
5. Even though clouds are present every day of our lives. Why do you think we take them from granted?
We become blind to things that are always present. It is just the way the human brain works. Clouds are omnipresent. They are the constant backdrops to our lives, and so we tend to forget that they are there. The society is a gentle reminder to look up and see them afresh. Only a small shift in perspective is needed to appreciate that there is beauty and wonder in the everyday stuff around – or above – us.
6. Why is it so important to understand the differences between clouds?
To the know the names of things is to form a closer relationship with them. This is why I think it is useful to learn the different types of clouds. Of course, these are just human categories that we are using to try to make sense of the boundless chaos of the sky, but the more we come to recognize the familiar expressions of the atmosphere, the more we come to understand about it and the more we are likely to care for it.
7. Do you think that the clouds have life of their own?
Clouds have a great effect on our moods and of course they stimulate our imaginations, because they invite us to find shapes in them. They feel like natural metaphors for our feelings because they pass over us and sometimes they feel almost like ideas because they seem to appear from nowhere and disappear away again just as easily.
The Saale River full of clouds near Ebersdorf, Thuringia, Germany.
This is an example of: Our favourites | Stratus | Stratocumulus | Altocumulus | Corona
8. For many people, cloudy days represent an ugly day or even can make them feel "blue”. How can we try to switch these perception of these "clouds"?
It is not necessary to think of clouds in this way. Children don’t think like this. It is wrong to find the negative in such a fundamental aspect of our surroundings. Happiness comes from finding the beauty in the everyday.
9. What is your favourite time of the day?
Whenever I notice something unusual in the sky and I take the time to stop what I am doing to watch it. This can happen at any time of day. The important thing is to be prepared to take a few moments out of whatever always feels pressing down here.
10. Does your fascination with clouds have to do with your thirst for change?
Clouds are in a state of constant change, and yes, I think that this is one of their appealing qualities. But they are also eternal. Clouds have been around for throughout human existence – and long before – so they have a contradictory quality of being both ephemeral and enduring.
11. Any tips to survive day by day?
Take a few moments each day to have your head in the clouds. The sky is a part of nature that is always present and always accessible. To spend a few moments focussing on the clouds helps you to slow down. It legitimises a few moments of doing nothing and it is like a brief meditation on nature. Taking a few moments to do this each day is, in my opinion, good for the mind, good for the creativity, and good for the soul. To spend some time every now and then with your head in the clouds helps you keep your feet on the ground.
12. What is the best place to observe clouds?
From your back yard, your garden or the window of your apartment. Cloudspotting is not about going somewhere in search of clouds, it is more a frame of mind. It is about being aware always of what is happening in the sky and, when you see something remarkable, being prepared to stop what you are doing, wherever you are, to spend a few moments appreciating it and then letting it go.
13. What else do we have to be thankful about the clouds?
Overall, they seem to have a slight cooling effect on our planet. They are what convert saltwater from the seas into fresh water we can drink. They act like air filters for our atmosphere because their water droplets and ice crystals form around tiny particles in our atmosphere – particles or dust or ash or pollution – and when they produce rain or snow they bring these back down to Earth. This is why the air always feels clearer after rains.
14. Do think that deep down we all admire the clouds but we aren’t aware of it?
Yes, as adults we tend to complain about the clouds, but whenever I ask someone what they really think about them they always seem to hold an affection for them. This is a nostalgic affection, because they say that the clouds remind them of when they were young.
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A display of noctilucent clouds over Schleiz, Thuringia, Germany.
Manifesto of the Cloud Appreciation Society
We believe that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them.
We think that clouds are Nature's poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them.
We pledge to fight 'blue-sky thinking' wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day.
We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions of the atmosphere's moods, and can be read like those of a person's countenance.
We believe that clouds are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul. Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save money on psychoanalysis bills.
And so we say to all who'll listen:
Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds!
Gavin Pretor-Pinney has presented television documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 and is a Visiting Fellow at the Meteorology Department of Reading University and winner of the Royal Meteorological Society’s Michael Hunt award. Based in Somerset, England, Gavin co-founded the Idler, a magazine that argues for the importance of downtime in creative thinking. His first book for younger readers, Cloudspotting For Beginners, is coming out in July 2024.
TED Talk:
https://youtu.be/lhP52caGW6s?si=yNuhx6M7Atma772M
Cloud Appreciation Society
