Chemtrails: Real or Not?
What you always thought were simply contrails are really dangerous chemicals being sprayed.
Filed under Conspiracies, Environment, Urban Legends
| Skeptoid #27 February 15, 2007 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe |
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By Brian Dunning, Skeptoid Podcast
Episode
27 , February 15, 2007
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/
4027
Today we're going to put on our Men In Black suits, buy a plane ticket, and spray the world with mysterious chemicals as part of an evil government conspiracy. For today's subject is chemtrails.
Wow. Where to begin. I read a fair amount of skeptical, paranormal, and conspiracy web sites, but I don't recall ever reading so much vituperation, anger, and name calling as when I read a few forums discussing chemtrails. If you're not familiar with the term, chemtrails are what some conspiracy theorists call aircraft condensation trails. Most of them don't believe that conventional contrails exist, and that when you see one, you're actually seeing a trail of mysterious airborne chemicals sprayed from the aircraft. Those who do concede the existence of contrails often claim subtle differences in appearance or behavior between a condensation trail and a chemical trail.
First, let's discuss exactly what a contrail is. A condensation trail, also called a vapor trail, forms at altitudes above 25,000 feet in temperatures below -40 degrees when engine exhaust condenses into ice crystals, creating an artificial cirrus cloud. Water is produced by hydrocarbon burning engines in about the same quantity as fuel consumed, and in the right conditions, this extra addition of water into the air pushes the water vapor past the saturation point, and condensation occurs. It takes a moment to happen, which accounts for the contrail appearing a short distance behind the aircraft, rather than immediately, like you'd see from a smoke pod on an aerobatic plane, or like when a crop duster releases chemicals. Contrails can also be caused at high altitudes by the extreme low pressure areas created by wingtip vortices, which reduce the temperature enough to condense the existing moisture in the air. As previously mentioned, many chemtrail believers claim that there is no such thing as a condensation trail. Since they're well understood, 100% reproducible, and observable practically any time you look into the sky, the onus is really on the believers to prove that no such thing is possible. In my opinion they have quite an uphill battle on this one.
By the way, in case you're wondering whether I meant Celsius or Fahrenheit when I said -40 degrees, here's a bit of science trivia for you. -40 is the point where the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales are the same. If you can figure out where Fahrenheit and Kelvins intersect, go to Skeptoid.com and post it in the forum.
Some chemtrail believers say that the population is being gassed with some unknown chemical for an unknown reason. Others tie into pop culture, suggesting that chemtrails are the active manifestation of one proposal to combat global warming by placing dust into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight. One guy told me "You guys are so full of yourselves just can't conceive of spiritual warfare can you? Try this fact: malevolent interdimensional entities are involved — project keep the human slave race suppressed."
Like all conspiracy theories, chemtrails require us to accept the existence of a coverup of mammoth proportions. In this case, virtually every aircraft maintenance worker at every airport in the world needs to be either part of the conspiracy, or living under a threat from Men in Black, with not a single whistle blower or deathbed confession in decades. Yet the threats are not frightening enough to prevent stories like the following from appearing on the Internet:
For reasons you will understand as you read this I can not divulge my identity. I am an aircraft mechanic for a major airline. I work at one of our maintenance bases located at a large airport. One day last month I was called out from our base to work on a plane for another airline. When I got to the plane I found out that the problem was in waste disposal system. When I got into the bay I realized that something was not right. There were more tanks, pumps, and pipes then should have been there. As I tried to find the problem I quickly realized the extra piping and tanks were not connected to the waste disposal system, at all. To my amazement the manuals did not show any of the extra equipment I had seen with my own eyes. I even tied in to the manufacturer files and still found nothing. I could trace the control wires from the box to the pumps and valves but there were no control circuits coming into the unit. The only wires coming into the unit was a power connection to the aircraft's main power bus. The system had 1 large tank and 2 smaller tanks. It was hard to tell in the cramped compartment, but it looked like the large tank could hold about 50 gallons. The tanks were connected to a fill and drain valve that passed through the fuselage just behind the drain valve for the waste system. I discovered that the pipes from this mystery system lead to every 1 out of 3 of the static discharge wicks. These wicks had been "hollowed out" to allow whatever flows through these pipes to be discharged through the fake wicks.
About 30 minutes later I was paged to see the General Manager. When I went in his office I found that our union rep and two others who I did not know were waiting on me. He told me that a serious problem had been discovered. He said that I was being written up and suspended for turning in false paperwork. I sat at home the first day of my suspension wondering what the hell had happened to me. That evening I received a phone call. The voice told me "Now you know what happens to mechanics who poke around in things they shouldn't. The next time you start working on systems that are no concern of yours you will lose your job! As it is, I'm feeling generous, I believe that you'll be able to go back to work soon." CLICK. Well that's it. Now I know 'THEY' are watching me.
Another forum poster replied:
I, too, work for an airline, though I work in upper management levels. I wish I could document everything I am about to relate to you, but to do so is next to impossible and would result in possible physical harm to me. Airline companies in America have been participating in something called Project Cloverleaf for a few years now. The earliest date anyone remembers being briefed on it is 1998. I was briefed on it in 1999. The few airline employees who were briefed on Project Cloverleaf were all made to undergo background checks, and before we were briefed on it we were made to sign non-disclosure agreements, which basically state that if we tell anyone what we know we could be imprisoned. About twenty employees in our office were briefed along with me by two officials from some government agency. They didn't tell us which one. They told us that the government was going to pay our airline, along with others, to release special chemicals from commercial aircraft. When asked what the chemicals were and why we were going to spray them, they told us that information was given on a need-to-know basis and we weren't cleared for it. He seemed perturbed at this question and told us in a tone of authority that the public doesn't need to know what's going on, but that this program is in their best interests. He also stated that we should not tell anyone, nor ask any more questions about it.
I take back my comment about the lack of whistle blowers. It seems that just about everyone is discussing it freely, and since the government is openly laying out virtually all the essential details to 20 people in every airline office in the world with complicity from all the union reps, why the secrecy? If we're truly on the edge of a global warming catastrophe and a worldwide cooperative effort to spray reflective dust into the atmosphere is the only way we can save ourselves, wouldn't a little glasnost be a more effective approach? Of course it would, but then we wouldn't have had those two very exciting and original stories.
If the goal was to drug a population, you'd put the gas where it could reach people, you wouldn't release a minute quantity into the jet stream where it's going to be diluted to undetectable levels and eventually rain into the oceans. If the goal is to put reflective dust into the atmosphere to fight global warming, you'd need to plant it a lot higher than commercial jets can travel if you don't want it to rain right back to earth (in fact you need to put it well up into the stratosphere, not just at the top of the troposphere), and you'd need a lot more than can ever be delivered with 50 gallon tanks. But then, the arguments in favor of chemtrails don't appear to be based on any kind of logic. They appear to be based on nothing more than imagined conspiracies and sightings of visible contrails, which are well understood, and are being left by planes every hour of the day over every city in the world, and have been for over 50 years. It's how the malevolent interdimensional entities remind us of their ominous presence.
© 2007 Skeptoid Media, Inc.
References & Further Reading
Anonymous. "An Airline Manager's Statement." Aerosol Crimes & Cover Up. C.E. Carnicom, 22 May 2000. Web. 11 Nov. 2009. <http://www.carnicom.com/mgr1.htm>
Anonymous. "A Mechanics Statement." Aerosol Crimes & Cover Up. C.E. Carnicom, 19 May 2000. Web. 11 Nov. 2009. <http://www.carnicom.com/mech1.htm>
Bruce Conway. "The Chemtrail Smoking Gun - Proof of Global Geoengineering Projects." Lightwatcher. Illumina Publishing, 20 Jun. 2003. Web. 22 Nov. 2009. <http://www.lightwatcher.com/chemtrails/smoking_gun.html>
Hope, Ray. America Sold Out. Longwood, FL: Xulon Press, 2003. 145-152.
Ludlum, David M. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Weather. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1991. 24-26.
U.S. Air Force. "Contrails Facts." Official website of the U.S. Airforce. U.S. Air Force, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 5 Nov. 2009. <http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-051013-001.pdf>
United States Environmental Protetion Agency. "Aircraft Contrails Factsheet (EPA430-F-00-005)." United States Environmental Protetion Agency. 1 Sep. 2000, EPA430-F-00-005.
Reference this article:
Dunning, Brian.
"Chemtrails: Real or Not?" Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
15 Feb 2007. Web.
4 Feb 2012. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4027>
Discuss!
5 most recent comments | Show all 76 comments
Remember, you should always read with skepticism the comments of anyone too lame to put their real name & city.
Several years ago I met otherwise rational people who believed in this "Chemtrail" nonsense. They lived right outside of Dobbins AFB in Georgia. Brilliant.
I think they just liked to complain a lot.
Government Goodies, Secret Government Lab
October 20, 2011 3:58am
First off look up the definition of conspiracy, next check out the current house bills on geo-engineering or read the white paper on "owning the weather in 2025" by the USAF. The so-called "unknown" chemicals are aluminum, barium, strontium and ethelyne dibromides. Lastly, Any one with a grade school degree can tell the difference between a condensation trail and one that is not. Like it to your breathe on a very cold day - does it stay around> Not likely - nor do true condensation trails as the air rapidly cools behind the hot exhaust. Before you debunk - educate yourself on reality and truth - not hocus-pocus science that does not stand up to reality. Better yet have your blood checked for heavy metals an see what you find out - then scoff all you want - bet you do not have the guts to do it then tell everyone what metals you find and how much there are. It is always easy to attack the people and never the issue. Credibility is based on fact - not fiction. Why did China say it would assure the weather was good for their olympics? How'd they do it - firecrackers? Just once it would be nice if all avenues were explored and disproved based on a scientific pool of experts not people prejudiced by their own unwillingness to ask hard questions and seek the truth. There IS more than ample evidence that that which you say is BS can indeed be proven out as fact. Perhaps you should take air, water and soil samples and have them analyzed to see what you find -publish them
Gr8Dane, Phoenix
November 06, 2011 12:23am
I think the biggest problem with your post is YES, we can tell what is a condensation trail and what it not. The breath on a cold day analogy is flawed (not least because of the amount of condensation and the dissipation area). But mostly we can all look at Con Trail conspiracy sites and say "Yes, they are condensation".
The way China claimed to ensure good weather for the olympics are well documented. Chemical conspiracies from comercial aircraft are not included.
Tom H, Kent
November 06, 2011 10:08am
Aluminum 39,000 parts per million tested, normal is 2
IRON 17,000 ppm, 0.6 max exposure limit EPA
bARIUM-2100 ppm, 2 max exposure limit EPA
Manganese 487 ppm, 0.1 max exposure limit EPA
Lead- 6.o PPM , .03 max exposure limit EPA
Cadmium 1.70 PPM , .01 max exposure limit EPA 1700 mORE
Chromium 48.0 PPM .01 max exposure limit EPA
Nickel 34.02 PPM.... , 0.2 , max exposure limit EPA
Arsenic 48 ppm, .02 max exposure limit EPA, 2000X above
100% chemtrail
Dustin, Your ass
November 24, 2011 3:18pm
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Donna there is a thing called self responsibility. Start believing that contrails then didnt have chemicals and contrails now do, you have missed the whole point of weighning up an argument as taught in school subjects.
I sell chicken booster.. unlike chicken booster 45 years ago, this one works.
Thanks to chicken booster I proudly own a turkey farm.
Please note the disparity between the concepts.
Now go back and read your post.
Henk V., sydney, Australia
September 01, 2011 6:56am