It was Jun 30, 2006 ·
An Inconvenient Truth American concert/documentary film directed by
Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate people about global warming. The film features a slide show that, by Gore’s own estimate, he has presented over 1,000 times to audiences worldwide. Al Gore, Billy West, George Bush, George W. Bush. Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim follows Al Gore on the lecture circuit, as the former presidential candidate campaigns to raise public awareness of the dangers of global warming and calls for immediate action to curb its 10 year destructive effects on the environment. An Inconvenient Truth (2006) full movie.
What happened when 77 atmospheric scientists actually took a look at the claim that aircraft are spewing out mind-controlling chemicals, wonders
Phil Plait
I’ve spent a lot of time debunking silly conspiracy claims in my time. NASA faked the Moon landings, the Mayan calendar predicted the end of the world in 2012, a mysterious planet called Nibiru would wipe out life on Earth in 2003, the government created fake snow in Atlanta that wouldn’t melt and scorched when burned… I’ve even debunked government officials who claim that other government officials are covering up conspiracies.
Background
Chemtrails refers to the theory, governments or other parties are engaged in a secret program to add toxic chemicals to the atmosphere from aircraft in a way that forms visible plumes in the sky, somewhat similar to contrails. Various different motivations for this alleged spraying are speculated, including sterilization, reduction of life expectancy, mind control or weather control.
We have not seen any credible evidence that chemtrails exist. If we did see any evidence that governments were endangering their own citizens in the manner alleged in the chemtrails conspiracy, we would be eager to expose and stop any such activities.
Our Research on Albedo Modification
We work on theoretical proposals for combating global warming called solar geoengineering or albedo modification. These are technologies that might enable people to add materials to the Earth’s atmosphere to reflect a bit more sunlight back to space, partially masking or reducing the climate change due to accumulated greenhouse gases.
Study of solar geoengineering is in the very early stages and the topic is (rightly) a very controversial area of climate policy because if it ever were tested at large scales or implemented it could involve physical risks and would raise a range of serious socio-political and ethical issues. However, there is nothing secret about the study of albedo modification, with hundreds of publications about the topic in academic journals and hundreds of articles in mainstream media. You can find some of our work here.
We are confident that there is no currently active program to actually test or implement albedo modification outdoors.
We are not now involved in outdoor experimentation, though we are indeed actively developing proposals for field experiments. This experiment will proceed only if it is conducted in a fully transparent and public manner, and only if it passes a comprehensive independent safety review. The experimental plans, operations and results will be publicly available and freely usable (no patenting).
The Chemtrails Conspiracy Theory
Because of the apparent similarities between the proposed implementation methods for albedo modification (such as injecting reflective particles into the stratosphere), and the alleged methods for producing chemtrails, some people have linked the notion of chemtrails to the study of albedo modification.
There is No Evidence for the Existence of Chemtrails
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The claim that there is a large-scale secret program to spray materials from aircraft is extraordinary.
Yet all the evidence we have seen to date has been very weak. The most common claim is simply that aircraft contrails look “different”, without any comparative analysis. This as convincing as saying that alien beings walk among in disguise as people because some people act very strangely.
If there really were a large-scale program dumping material from aircraft
at the scale described, there would have to be a large operating program to manufacture, load and disperse materials. If such a program existed at the scale required to explain the claimed amount of chemtrails, it would require thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of people. It would be extraordinarily hard to keep such a program secret because it would be so easy for a single individual in the program to reveal it using leaked documents, photographs or actual hardware.
Moreover, if such a program was intended to cause harm to their fellow citizens—as is alleged by people who believe in the chemtrails conspiracy—then people working in the program would have very strong personal motivations to reveal it.
We don’t trust that governments will always do the right thing, but we do trust the goodwill of individuals who take risks to blow the whistle, exposing government misdeeds.
Comments for People who Believe in Chemtrails
If you believe in chemtrails, ask yourself how you can be so certain that
there is indeed a grand conspiracy. Consider alternative, simple explanations. Remember that the Internet is filled with people who are completely sure about stuff that just isn’t true. Remember that while governments can keep secrets that involve only a few people they do a very bad job of keeping large-scale programs secret. The Russians, for example, knew specific details about the Manhattan project before the first nuclear weapons test, and that was a case where those involved had a clear patriotic motivation to keep the secret.
If you think that aircraft contrails “look different” or are “behaving strangely” consider that regular aircraft condensation trails (contrails) are sometimes long-lasting and the way they look can change suddenly along a flight path as aircraft fly through regions with different temperature and humidity. This is well understood and has been demonstrated by ground observation and by scientific research performed by thousands of people over many decades. Of course it’s possible something else is going on, but to prove it one would need more than simple photographs of something that looks entirely consistent with normal contrails.
Finally here are some additional resources that may be of interest:
Several people who were concerned about chemtrails came to talk
with me and recorded a video of our conversation.
Chemtrails Conspiracy Theory – Bing video
Chemtrails in California – Chemtrails Spraying in California – Stop Chemtrail Spraying in California California,
Report Chemtrails in California (stopsprayingcalifornia.com)
Chemicals in chemtrails list – Bing video
There are a number of websites listed below that critique or debunk the chemtrail conspiracy theories. See for example: when I say I haven’t bothered debunking chemtrails because they’re too goofy even for me, you can glean how I really feel about them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory
http://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/articles/chemtrails/
https://www.metabunk.org/forums/contrails-and-chemtrails.9/
http://contrailscience.com/
http://www.skepticforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9423
“An Inconvenient Truth” presented by Bill Bradbury on Vimeo
Still, a handful of people are extremely devoted to the idea that the government is spraying us with chemicals from planes, and what you think are simple contrails are actually high doses of mind-altering (or climate altering) chemical compounds meant to keep us under control, I mean, come on, wake up sheeple!
Sigh.
Just Water Vapor
In fact, when you see clouds coming from planes they really are just the product of condensation of water vapor. But why let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy?
Still, it’s worth trying. That’s why scientists from the University of California, Irvine, and the Carnegie Institute got together and researched the topic.
They knew they wouldn’t convince the conspiracy theorists, but having a solid source of objective science might help inform the public discourse.
What else is going on up there? No-fly zone: Exploring the uncharted layers of our atmosphere
Given how anti-science so many members of the US Congress can be, I don’t think there’s any idea too silly for them to not take seriously.
They surveyed hundreds of experts in contrails as well as those who study atmospheric deposition (how various chemicals fall to the ground from the air), presenting them with the evidence provided on various chemtrail websites (mostly in the form of photos of plane trails and analyses of water and soil samples), asking them to evaluate it.
No evidence
In the end, 77 scientists reported back, and the results were not terribly surprising. 98.7 per cent (76 out of 77) of the scientists said they had encountered no evidence of a secret large-scale atmospheric programme (SLAP). Everything they saw on the conspiracy websites showed that what they were seeing was the natural consequence of planes flying around all on their own without government nefariousness.
Of course, the first thing you’ll notice is the one scientist who dissented. In that case, it’s hardly a smoking gun: The one participant who answered yes said the evidence they had come across was “high levels of atm[ospheric] barium in a remote area with standard ‘low’ soil barium”.
In other words, they found some unusually high amounts of barium, which hardly supports the idea of wide-spread cover-ups of mind control techniques – and it sounds like the scientist in question was simply saying they can’t rule SLAP out, which is a very different thing from saying it’s real. When I can’t find my keys in the morning I can’t rule out that dinosaur ghosts hid them from me. It just seems a tad unlikely.
The Walk Away
The research is actually rather interesting, and I encourage you to read it. But as the authors note, it won’t make a dent in the conspiracy theories. The first thing you’ll find out when you deal with people like that is that any evidence against them is part of the cover-up. This is what I call a philosophical cul-de-sac; they’ve removed themselves from any possible evidence and criticism, and at that point I’ve learned to walk away.
What else is going on up there?
Rain makers: How high-flying bacteria could control the clouds
At least to walk away from them specifically; in some cases it’s worth pursuing the discussion with the public because they’re liable to hear about it, and a place to find actual facts and debunking is a handy thing to make available.
So I’m glad these scientists went to the effort, even though it may seem silly. Conspiracy theorists usually don’t make a big splash in real life, but if they get the ear of a politician, time, money, and effort can indeed be wasted – sometimes on a big scale. Given how anti-science so many members of Congress can be, I don’t think there’s any idea too silly for them to not take seriously.
If Congress critters think Earth is cooling, that it’s only 6000 years old, that vaccines are dangerous, and that the existence of snow disproves global warming, then chemtrails don’t seem like that much of a stretch.
This article was first published by Slate
(1) Chemtrails Conspiracy Theory – Bing video
(2) Chemtrails in California – Chemtrails Spraying in California – Stop Chemtrail Spraying in California California,
(3) Report Chemtrails in California (stopsprayingcalifornia.com)
(4) chemicals in chemtrails list – Bing video
The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (1) HAARP was initiated as an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It was designed and built by BAE Advanced Technologies. Its original purpose was to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance. As a university-owned facility, HAARP is a high-power, high-frequency transmitter used for study of the ionosphere.
FULL STORY: Arsenic is a deadly poison for most living things, but new research shows that microorganisms are breathing arsenic in a large area of the Pacific Ocean.
Dust particles pumped out by industry, agriculture and transport could be the catalyst that makes a nasty thunderstorm switch into a spawning ground for tornadoes. Researchers from Colorado State University who have been seeking a greater understanding of the twisters that plague the American Midwest each year believe that particulate matter could be partly to blame for the devastating problem.
(2) Greater intensity hurricanes than 100 years.
(3) Arsenic creating dead spots in the ocean.
(4) Hurricanes through the years.
(5) Pollution causing the tornadoes.