Cloud Appreciation Society

April 19, 2024 Remo Giuffré

Clouds get a bad rap, and idiomatic English is not helpful. To be “under a cloud” is not a good thing, unless a “silver lining” comes to the rescue. Indeed, clouds tend to be regarded as things that get in the way. Blots on your “blue sky thinking”. Something to moan about.

The Cloud Appreciation Society is an organisation dedicated to fostering appreciation for clouds and the sky. Founded by Gavin Pretor-Pinney in early 2005, the society encourages people to look up and appreciate the beauty and diversity of clouds. It celebrates the ever-changing forms and patterns of clouds and promotes understanding of meteorology and atmospheric science.

There’s a very sizeable number of members (63,000 from 120 countries) most of who pay cash money on an annual basis to share photographs, artwork, poems and observations related to clouds through the society's website and social media channels. The organisation also publishes books, organises cloud-spotting events, and advocates for the inclusion of cloud appreciation in education and public discourse.

The published Manifesto of the Cloud Appreciation Society is as follows:

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!

In this wonderful 2013 TED talk titled “Cloudy with a chance of joy” Pretor-Pinney shares charming photos of nature's finest aerial architecture, and calls for us all to take a step off the digital treadmill, lie back and admire the beauty in the sky above. He also calls clouds “nature’s version of inkblot images” and makes a good case in support of the position that the pointlessness of cloud spotting is precisely the point.

So, look up and keep your eyes peeled for your own versions of: kissing couples, a topless sun bather or maybe two cats dancing the salsa.

Learn more about the Cloud Appreciation Society HERE.

Story Idea: Melanie Giuffré
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References

cloudappreciationsociety.org
wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Appreciation_Society
ted.com/talks/gavin_pretor_pinney_cloudy_with_a_chance_of_joy

Images

1. Cloud design at REMO
2. Gavin Pretor-Pinney. Photo credit: Charles Glover.
3. Website: Cloud Appreciation Society
4. Members enamel badge
5. Video: Cloudy with a chance of joy, Gavin Pretor-Pinney at TED Global, Edinburgh 2013
6. Cloud spotting: Kissing couple by Marion Florjancic, Calabria, Italy
7. Cloud spotting: Sun bather by Sue Shaw, Northumberland, UK
8. Cloud spotting: Two cats dancing the salsa by Mike Rubin, Hampshire, UK
9. Cloud merchandise at REMO available HERE