Guess what this is:
It's an image of the Earth from space. That was easy. The real question is: what are those white trails? Aircraft contrails? Nope, but that's a logical guess. What they are is the track of clouds created by the particulate emissions from ships. The aerosols act as cloud seeds and create long sinuous clouds that trail the ships.
Serious problem? Well, it seems so:
Commercial Ships Spew Half As Much Particulate Pollution As World's Cars
The thing is, this is a good news-bad news story. The good news is that there is probably a global cooling effect from the ship cloud trails. The bad news is that the particulates are still bad to breathe, and they travel a long way.
Ships burn fossil fuels, which is why I think the following picture illustrates a viable way to reduce both fuel consumption and particulate pollution:
Besides, almost everyone likes to fly a kite, right?
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