My daughter and her boyfriend flew home to Portland today and we flew home to the San Francisco Bay area today. For a change I wound up with an economy plus seat with a window. I haven't had a window to myself in a long time. So, I looked out most of the way back when I wasn't dozing. What I realized was just how much the Pacific Ocean from Maui to the Mainland has changed since I more regularly had window seats traveling to Maui or Bangkok or Nepal in the 1980s. Basically, China and Asia throw a whole lot more smoke and stuff into the air so the whole Pacific Ocean atmosphere is completely different than it used to be. Though the clouds around Maui and the Hawaiian islands and all the rainbows you see all the time from light rain with the sun showing through it is still there, the weather patterns have completely changed from the 1980s and 1990s.
Then as I looked from my window I was sort of horrified at all the kinds of clouds that didn't exist before. The most familiar looking ones were the cirrus clouds that are ice crystals usually from 20,000 feet to 60,000 feet maximum and I noticed we didn't usually fly through ice crystal cirrus clouds which make sense. Then I noticed we were flying really high likely 39,000 feet or so because I couldn't even see the white caps on the ocean anymore but I still could see a container ship heading west across the ocean going pretty fast about halfway between Maui and San Francisco.
The clouds are a lot more chopped up into patterns I never saw at all during the 1980s and 1990s and there are sections that sort of look more like storms of smoke than anything else at higher altitudes.
Seeing just how much the pollution has changed the visibility from the way it was in the 1980s and before I realized just how much this must be affecting the weather and even the temperature of the water worldwide as well.
Just from looking out my window and comparing it to what I saw during the 1980s while flying across the Pacific Ocean made me realize how everything has changed in not a good way for life on earth.
Then I thought of the 8200 new passenger planes ordered in the last 5 years on earth mostly in Asia and combined that with the ongoing plume of radiation from the meltdowns seeping into the ocean through the fresh water water table of underground streams and rivers and realized how radiation from Fukushima has already traveled into all the oceans of the earth that are interconnected now. So, even though it will be much less in the Atlantic and other oceans it still is already there in currents and fish that migrate all over the world in their flesh.
However, that all being said our time on Maui was the closest to heaven that most people ever see. So, if you like Hawaii go visit there while it is still such and amazing place to visit.
Part of the way back we likely were following another plane so our plane adjusted it's altitude down a couple of thousand feet which was sort of neat for me to look up at the contrail we were following above us from another plane on our heading a couple thousand feet above us.
It was a little bumpy which is likely why we traveled mostly at such high altitudes. I learned recently that most fuselages on passenger planes are not guaranteed above 45,000 feet without a potential rupture of the fuselage or windows. So, this likely is why about 39,000 feet where the air is thin and will cushion flights from air turbulence seems to be a favorite of pilots crossing the Pacific Ocean. The flights between the mainland and Hawaii are the only ones where I actually witnessed a stewardess hit the ceiling and land on passengers from the storms that sometime move across the pacific Ocean. So, if you aren't stretching your legs or going to the bathroom it is a really good idea to keep your seat belt fastened lightly at all times you are sitting down.
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