The project

This website begins with a fairly simple insight: sometimes, a major climate opportunity is not somewhere in the distant future. Sometimes, it is a few hundred metres higher. Or lower.

Contrails are one of the biggest blind spots in the climate debate. They are visible — but politically almost invisible. They sit in the sky, while emissions accounting mostly talks about CO₂. And that is exactly why we are working to bring this topic out of the expert bubble.

beyond content

beyond content is a non-profit communications agency for social change.

We work on the climate crisis, biodiversity, sustainable business and societal transformation — through journalism, campaigns, videos, social media, education and everything else that helps bring good ideas out of the niche.

Our principle is simple: do not make problems smaller. But make solutions bigger.

Because climate communication often comes in two unfortunate states of matter. Either it sounds like an insurance PDF with a footnote allergy. Or like the apocalypse in caps lock.

We are trying something else: understandable, precise, accessible. With a clear stance, but without the wagging finger.

So why contrails?

Because this topic has everything good climate communication needs: a surprising insight, a relevant scale, a real solution — and a public that knows almost nothing about it.

When we started researching contrails, one thing quickly became clear: this is not a fringe topic. It is a lever. One that is talked about far too little.

Learn more about beyond content Sign the petition

Work on Climate

Work on Climate is an international community for people who want to move their work toward climate action.

Not someday. Not “when there’s time.” Now.

The community brings together professionals from technology, science, communication, policy, business and many other fields. The shared question: where can my knowledge make the biggest difference?

With contrails, the answer is especially interesting. Because the problem sits exactly at the intersection of climate, weather data, aviation practice, regulation and communication.

Or, less elegantly: it is complicated. And that is exactly why it needs people who know what they are talking about.

Our chapter work

This microsite is not just an information page. It is also an invitation.

Together with Work on Climate, we are building a chapter on the avoidance of climate-active contrails. In very simple terms, at the beginning it is mainly a place for exchange, expertise and concrete next steps.

The chapter is aimed especially at people from aviation and adjacent fields:

• Flight planners: you know how routes are created. Which tools are used. Where theory meets reality.
• Pilots: you know what is practicable in the cockpit — and what sounds nice in a PowerPoint but becomes difficult in real-world operations.
• Air traffic control: you know how airspace works. Which clearances are possible. And where additional complexity really arises.
• Climate scientists: you work on the question of which contrails are especially impactful — and how that impact can be calculated robustly.
• Aviation weather analysts: you understand the layers in which contrails form. And you know how hard good forecasts really are.
• Decision-makers in aviation, software, policy and regulation: you can help turn pilot projects into standards.

The goal is not to create yet another online group. The goal is to bring knowledge together, identify key barriers, sharpen solutions, and build collective pressure from there. To make that possible, we want to connect people, perspectives, and areas of work in a meaningful way — so that individual efforts can add up to greater collective impact.

Partners & supporters

This work does not exist in a vacuum.

We build on research, field trials, open data and the work of many organisations that have been pushing this topic forward for years — from science, aviation, civil society and technology.

These include, among others:

• Flightkeys
• Google
• Contrails.org
• Transport & Environment
• Work on Climate
• TUI

This list is growing. Not as a decorative logo strip, but as a network of people and organisations who have understood: the solution is not science fiction. It is planning.

Get involved

You can help in two ways.

If you are not from the industry:

Sign the petition. Share this page. Talk about the topic. Contrails need to move out of the niche — and into climate policy.

If you work in aviation, research, flight planning, air traffic control, software development or regulation:

Join the chapter. Bring in your knowledge. Help us understand what is practically possible, what is still missing and where the biggest lever lies.

Because this solution will not happen just because there is a nice sentence on a website somewhere.

It will happen when the right people start working together.

Contact

Got questions?

Do you work in aviation, research or regulation and want to join the chapter?

Sources & context

All studies, articles, videos and background materials this microsite is based on are collected here: View news & sources