The Chemtrails Conspiracy

The Chemtrails Conspiracy

Published 19.03.2024 | By Йосиф

The Chemtrails Conspiracy: Are We Being Sprayed With Toxic Chemicals?

IN we’ve all seen the white streaks that trail behind airplanes and create streaks against the blue sky.

According to the US University Atmospheric Research Corporation, these lines are called contrails. They occur when water vapor condenses and freezes around aircraft exhaust.

At least that’s what science says. In recent years, more and more people have come to believe that these streaks are actually chemical, a well-established conspiracy theory that the streaks in question are not condensation at all, but rather chemicals sprayed by the government, reports CNN.

While the theory may sound far-fetched to some, chemtrails have become a widespread conspiracy both in the US and around the world, despite evidence to the contrary.

What is the chemtrails conspiracy theory?

The idea of chemtrails has been around since 1996 and is largely rooted in an Air Force research paper from that year. The document is titled “Weather as a Force Multiplier: “Time Mastery in 2025.” It outlines “a future system for modifying weather to achieve military objectives” using “aerospace forces” and “does not reflect current military policy, practice or capabilities ,” states the US Environmental Protection Agency, quoted by CNN.

Basically, the conspiracy theory claims that contrails aren’t created by water vapor at all, but are a sign that the government and the powerful and wealthy are releasing toxic chemicals into the air, creating these white lines.

Ideas about the purpose of these supposedly toxic chemicals vary. Some believe the chemicals are used to poison humanity, others say they are for mind control, and still others believe it is a way for the government to control the weather.

There is no single official version of the theory, says Sijia Xiao, a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkeley, who in 2021 Xiao conducted a study in which he investigated the “condensation trail” conspiracy theory and interviewed 20 people.

How did the chemtrails conspiracy theory come about?

The idea that the government is spraying humanity with chemicals is not entirely baseless, CNN points out.

According to researchers, during the Cold War, the British government carried out more than 750 simulated chemical attacks on the population. Hundreds of thousands of people were thus exposed to zinc-cadmium sulfide, a chemical chosen because of its small size—similar to that of microbes—and because it glows under ultraviolet light, making it easy to trace. At the time, the chemical was thought to be non-toxic, although repeated exposure could cause cancer. The US did the same in the 1950s and 1960s – using the chemical as a tracer to test the spread of biological weapons.

Although these tests were decades ago, the theory has flourished — so much so that in 2016 the Environmental Protection Agency released a 14-page document listing the chemicals used by the Air Force and attempting to dispute the conspiracy.

In 2021, a post circulated on Facebook alleging that President Joe Biden had “manipulated” the weather through contrails and caused the week-long extreme cold in Texas this February.

In X, thousands of people follow accounts dedicated to tracking and posting evidence of these chemtrails. A 2017 survey of a representative sample of 1,000 people found that about 10 percent of Americans believed in the conspiracy “completely,” while up to 30 percent found it at least “somewhat” true.

According to Xiao, belief in conspiracies is often due to skepticism towards authority figures, and social media has also played a role in amplifying the problem, according to CNN.

The algorithmic structure of social media allows people to see information that reinforces their existing beliefs.

The people Xiao interviewed said they believed such theories because they read “a huge amount of conspiracy-supporting information” on social media, said Coy Cheshire, a UC Berkeley professor of social psychology who also participated in the study along with Xiao. Scientific evidence disproving the theories just didn’t make it into their feeds or social groups, the scientist explains.

The malleable nature of the conspiracy theory gives it power, Cheshire says.

“As some believers have told us, the strength of the conspiracy is that it can be adapted to any new information, since the evidence of condensation trails never appears. For example, even if believers are not sure that the so-called “chemtrails are actually used for population control, the narrative can easily shift to weather manipulation and climate change without the need for new information or evidence ,” Cheshire says.

There is also the fact that we can see the stripes with our own eyes. Their visibility and presence in everyday life is helping to attract even more interest to the theory, Xiao adds.

While the theory may seem silly to some, the believers’ main concerns come from “legitimate societal and environmental issues that deserve attention ,” says Xiao.

Mistrust of government, concern about environmental problems, or even struggles with chronic disease can lend credence to the chemtrail theory by suggesting that something else is causing these societal problems.

Are chemtrails real?

Here’s what the experts say:

Scientists claim that there is no evidence of the existence of condensation trails. Even if there was a government conspiracy related to the streaks left behind by the planes, such a large-scale program would be difficult to cover up given the number of people that would be required for the operation, Harvard researchers noted.

All over the world, scientists are conducting investigations debunking conspiracies, detailing the existence of airborne contrails and their varieties. Even Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency, said that these traces “are not dangerous”.

However, people are not convinced. Belief in the theory has become so strong that meteorologists around the world report an increase in harassment and threats, usually after extreme weather events, especially from conspiracy theorists who accuse them of withholding information.

“The collective agreement in these communities often outweighs the rational disagreement of scientists. This makes it extremely difficult for factual corrections to change these deeply held beliefs ,” says Xiao.

https://www.vesti.bg/sviat/konspiraciiata-kemtrejls-pryskat-li-ni-s-toksichni-himikali-snimkivideo-6193791