Posts falsely claim Climate Change is a scam created by using “Chemtrails”

CLAIM

Climate change is a scam created by governments using “Chemtrails”.

FACT

“Chemtrails” don’t exist and it is nothing but a conspiracy theory often used by climate change deniers. “Contrails” or vapor trails have also been confused with “chemtrails” by the common public.

WHAT THEY SAY

They claim that the government substantiates the existence of climate change and climate emergency through “chemtrails”. They further claim that “Chemtrails” are the white trails that airplanes leave behind in the sky while poisonous chemicals are allegedly injected into the atmosphere by governments to artificially manipulate global weather and the climate. We found several Twitter posts with similar claims and decided to do a fact-check to verify whether these claims were valid.

WHAT WE FOUND

The chemtrail conspiracy theory began to circulate among the general public after the United States Air Force (USAF) published a 1996 report about weather modification. It continues to create unwanted consternation among the common public when they see white trails left behind by aircraft which are actually condensation (contrails) or vapor trails.

What are Contrails?

UCAR Center for Science Education definites contrails as “Clouds that form when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles (aerosols) in aircraft exhaust.” Contrails were initially observed during the first high-altitude flights in the 1920s, but scientists and engineers did not pay much attention to them until the Second World War when military bombers could be seen from a great distance due to the extensive contrail trails they left behind. Many veteran pilots have reported difficulties with navigation and combat caused by large contrail formations. H. Appleman, a scientist, published a chart in 1953 that was successfully used to predict when a jet aircraft would produce a contrail.

According to Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), “Contrails form when hot, humid air from jet exhaust mixes with environmental air of low vapor pressure and low temperature. The mixing is a result of turbulence generated by the engine exhaust”. This often only happens in the upper troposphere, where the air must be supersaturated, and the temperature must be below -40°F. Under those circumstances, water vapor from the jet’s exhaust and secondarily from the atmosphere condenses into water droplets. These drops quickly freeze into the snow-white particles that create the contrail within a few tens of feet of the airplane.

Carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, unburned fuel, soot, metal particles, and water vapor are all components of jet engine exhaust. The soot act as a condensation nuclei, which means the water vapor can condense or desublimate. Contrails can vary in thickness, length, and duration depending on a plane’s altitude as well as the atmosphere’s temperature and humidity. It is possible to forecast the weather using the characteristics and persistence of jet contrails. A thick, prolonged contrail reflects humid air at high elevations and can serve as an early warning indication of a storm. A thin, short contrail indicates low humidity at high altitudes, a sign of fair weather. It’s not unusual to see two planes flying overhead simultaneously, one of them leaving a trail while the other doesn’t. This is explained scientifically by the fact that the two aircraft are flying at various atmospheric altitudes.

Sky over Barcelona around 11:00 UTC (1 p.m. local time) on September 21, 2011.

The “Chemtrails” Conspiracy Theory

Chemtrails allude to a hoax. The conspiracy theory is based on the idea that chemicals or biological agents are released deliberately at high altitudes. According to the theory, there are many potential reasons for this purported spraying, including sterilization, decreased life expectancy, mind control, and weather control. The common argument is that the emissions from a jet airliner should dissipate fast, so any clouds that do not vanish right once must include other, unspecified materials. Chemtrail beliefs are not just a U.S. phenomenon; in a global study, nearly 17% of participants said that they believed there was a “secret big-scale atmospheric program,” at least in part.

But the governmental organizations and scientists have not discovered any proof that chemtrails exist. Occasionally agents are indeed released into the atmosphere for cloud seeding and solar radiation control experiments (albedo modification). Some people have connected the idea of chemtrails to the study of albedo modification due to the apparent similarities between the proposed implementation methods such as injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere and the purported methods for producing chemtrails.

Weather Modification

NOAA defines weather modification as “the deliberate or the inadvertent alteration of atmospheric conditions by human activity”. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding, In some parts of the world, particularly China and Southeast Asia, cloud seeding is practiced. “Cloud seeding is the process of artificially generating rain by implanting clouds with particles such as silver iodide crystals”. The most common method of cloud seeding involves spraying particles from an aircraft. Based on the location of the target area and the prevailing winds, suitable clouds are found using weather forecasting tools. Cloud seeding can alter clouds and bring forth rain if the right circumstances are present. This functions in two ways: either by boosting the amount of rain that falls over a specific area or by creating rain where none would normally fall. Several experts think that if the practice becomes common, it can cause silver toxicity and environmental problems. Similar concerns exist regarding cloud seeding’s potential to disrupt the earth’s normal moisture balance. Also, cloud seeding cannot be utilized to produce rain during a drought since moisture is a prerequisite for cloud seeding to work.

Likewise, scientists are exploring new ideas to cool the planet. One similar approach is Stratospheric Aerosol Injection ( SAI). SAI is a proposed solar radiation management geoengineering or climate engineering approach that “spray large quantities of tiny reflective particles into the stratosphere, an upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space”. The method involves using high-altitude aircraft, tethered balloons, high-altitude blimps, or artillery to spray reflective sulphate aerosol particles into the stratosphere. The underlying causes of climate change are not addressed by any of those solar geoengineering techniques. Instead, they mimic the sulphur-rich dust cloud that lingers in the atmosphere after large volcanic eruptions to minimize the amount of solar radiation that enters the atmosphere. In contrast to a volcanic eruption, SAI assumes ongoing particle layer maintenance by routine injections.

Conclusion

“Chemtrails” is nothing but a conspiracy theory. Cloud seeding can be used to induce rainfall at a local level and SAI is still a “proposed” solar radiation management geoengineering or climate engineering approach. Climate change is very much real and is not some “scam” or conspiracy of the government, as the NASA website says, “There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.” IPCC says, “According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Since systematic scientific assessments began in the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact.”

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory#cite_note-Telegraph2013-11

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/contrails_k-12.pdf

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/wxwise/class/contrail.html

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-jets-leave-a-white/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/contrail.html

https://www.thoughtco.com/chemtrails-versus-contrails-3976090

https://keith.seas.harvard.edu/chemtrails-conspiracy-theory

https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5117/511766757028/html/

https://public.wmo.int/en/resources/bulletin/seeding-change-weather-modification-globally

https://www.watercorporation.com.au/Help-and-advice/Water-supply/Alternative-water-supply-options/Cloud-seeding#:~:text=Cloud%20seeding%20is%20usually%20carried,modify%20clouds%20and%20induce%20rain.

https://www.geoengineeringmonitor.org/2021/02/stratospheric_aerosol_injection/