I used to dismiss https://www.ingersolllockwood.com/ but now I think it could be hugely important.
Used to think "it's all part of the show" was exaggerated and silly, but now I find myself wondering if white hats have their hand in nearly every major news story.
Going the other way...
I'm embarrassed to admit I followed Lin Wood during the first part of 2021. Now certain he's a fraud.
Until late last year I was convinced the military was about to roll in anytime a big story broke. Now I see that sort of thinking as counterproductive hopium that leads only to chronic letdown and fatigue.
If this thread catches on I'll come up with more.
Think I get what you're saying. My observations don't really match though. I've never noticed a change in contrails. Saw them as a kid in the 80s/90s and they look the same today.
I still say increased air traffic is a big part of why more people notice contrails. Don't have numbers on hand but I'm sure traffic is up several hundred percent from the 90's.
Weather is such a wild variable, with different regions also experiencing different patterns. The jet stream moves around, which could account for some of the trends in persistence you've noticed. Also there are long term weather changes (natural cyclical changes, not manmade global warming).
To be clear, I believe governments around the world have sprayed stuff from airplanes in effort to accomplish a variety of things. But the average contrail is just a contrail.
NASA had information about contrails that was from an older sudy confirming that dissipating is rare and persistent is rarer still. From my observation in SE MI at its maximum the frequency of persistent trails increased to thousands of times more than in the 70's and 80's while dissipating trails perhaps increased a modest amount at most.