Bronze-level articleChemtrails

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[[Image:484px-Hackney sunset.jpg|200px|right]]
 
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'''Chemtrails''' are mislabeled contrails left by jet airplanes that [[conspiracy]] [[crank]]s claims are evidence that the [[government]] is attempting to poison people from above. The combustion products of jet airplanes are water and carbon dioxide. This exhaust condenses in the high altitude cold and forms false cirrus clouds that trail behind the planes. These contrails are a common sight across most of the world and have become great conspiracy fodder.   
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'''Chemtrails''' are mislabeled contrails (ondensation trails) left by jet airplanes that [[conspiracy]] [[crank]]s claims are evidence that the [[government]] is attempting to poison people from above. The combustion products of jet airplanes are water and carbon dioxide - just plain artificial clouds. This exhaust condenses in the high altitude cold and forms false cirrus clouds that trail behind the planes. These contrails are a common sight across most of the world and have become great conspiracy fodder.   
  
 
==Contrails==
 
==Contrails==
  
 
[[Image:Blackray.jpg||thumb|right|200px|A black ray contrail]]
 
[[Image:Blackray.jpg||thumb|right|200px|A black ray contrail]]
Contrails are formed when hot high-pressure jet exhaust gases mix with rarefied cool air. In a process similar to cloud formation, the water present in the jet exhaust freezes quickly, forming a white haze. Since this process generally completes several hundred feet behind the aircraft, passengers on commercial airliners typically do not see contrails forming, giving weight to the claim that “chemtrails” only come from special military aircraft.  Commercial planes also, of course, don't have windows that face the rear.
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Contrails are formed when hot high-pressure jet exhaust gases mix with rarefied cool air. In a process similar to cloud formation, the water present in the jet exhaust freezes quickly, forming a white haze. Since this process generally completes several hundred feet behind the aircraft, passengers on commercial airliners typically do not see contrails forming, giving weight to the claim that "chemtrails" only come from special military aircraft.  Commercial planes also, of course, don't have windows that face the rear.
  
 
Note that contrails are different than the grayish "vapor trails" sometimes seen when flying low with flaps extended. These are formed of liquid water from compression of moist air under the wing.
 
Note that contrails are different than the grayish "vapor trails" sometimes seen when flying low with flaps extended. These are formed of liquid water from compression of moist air under the wing.

Revision as of 01:14, 4 July 2010

Chemtrails are mislabeled contrails (ondensation trails) left by jet airplanes that conspiracy cranks claims are evidence that the government is attempting to poison people from above. The combustion products of jet airplanes are water and carbon dioxide - just plain artificial clouds. This exhaust condenses in the high altitude cold and forms false cirrus clouds that trail behind the planes. These contrails are a common sight across most of the world and have become great conspiracy fodder.

Contents

Contrails

A black ray contrail

Contrails are formed when hot high-pressure jet exhaust gases mix with rarefied cool air. In a process similar to cloud formation, the water present in the jet exhaust freezes quickly, forming a white haze. Since this process generally completes several hundred feet behind the aircraft, passengers on commercial airliners typically do not see contrails forming, giving weight to the claim that "chemtrails" only come from special military aircraft. Commercial planes also, of course, don't have windows that face the rear.

Note that contrails are different than the grayish "vapor trails" sometimes seen when flying low with flaps extended. These are formed of liquid water from compression of moist air under the wing.

On days when cirrus cloud formation is occurring, there is more moisture in the upper atmosphere, and consequently, contrails may linger longer before evaporating. Since cirrus clouds often precede a general overcast or haze, the casual observer could easily assume that the contrails or chemtrails have caused the overcast, or become the overcast.

In the event that an aircraft is flying directly away from the setting or rising sun, the contrail may cause a spectacular crepuscular ray, known in chemtrail jargon as the "black ray", which has a sinister appearance. Basically, part of the contrail is lit, and part is in shadow. It's not evil, it's the Law of Shadows.

Chemtrails

The supposed purpose of the chemtrail campaign is admittedly unknown, but speculation includes:

  • sterilization for genocide or population control
  • administration of drugs for mind-control or pacification
  • suppression of human evolution
  • various activities associated with grand conspiracy theories.

The alleged composition of chemtrails varies from one wingnut to another. According to the website of chemtrail "expert" Clifford Carnicom,[1] they may contain barium, calcium, magnesium, titanium, metallic salts, and microscopic fibers. Another site claims they are composed of “an oil based substance of unknown content” and “unknown biological components”.[2]

The alleged effects of chemtrails are incredibly varied. A claim of increase in respiratory diseases is common. Weather alteration is often mentioned. In chemtrail site forums nearly every unexplained headache or car-windshield spot is attributed to chemtrails.

It is known that barium (supposedly included in chemtrails) has the ability to prevent activation of certain T-cells, although this process is reversible and not a proven in vivo effect of barium exposure.[3] This has been made to fit into a wider secret plan to weaken the immune systems of the chemtrail targets.[4]

Chemtrail history and culture

Chemtrail theories were first brought to prominence in the 1990s by paranormal pusher and talk radio host Art Bell. Aided by the internet, it is now a world wide phenomenon and chemtrail watchers all over the globe exchange photographs and videos of their favorite contrails on forums and youtube.

Chemtrails were mentioned in House Bill HR2977,[5] which banned various types of weapons in space. The reference to chemtrails was eventually removed, but the original inclusion is cited as evidence that they are a real phenomenon. Given that the original bill was introduced by Dennis Kucinich, it perhaps reveals more about Kucinich than about whether chemtrails are real.

The chemtrail conspiracy is most popular among those familiar with the New World Order and who claim that the spray is designed to pacify populations, either by making them sick, or some sort of mind control. Like many other pseudoscientific terms, earnest use of the word "chemtrails" immediately identifies the person using it as a crank, and is enough to harm credibility and provoke ridicule among those of a more rationalism disposition.

Chemtrail conspiracies make no sense

The very existence of the Grand Conspiracy required to administer chemtrails may be challenged on the basis of the difficulty of maintaining such a conspiracy for so long. Aerial spraying from high-altitude would be an extremely inefficient and inexact mode of delivering chemicals to ground-based targets. Pesticides, for example, are often sprayed on crops from airplanes flying at thirty feet. Wide-area mosquito spraying may be done from an altitude of 150 feet. Chemtrails are supposedly deposited at 30,000 feet or higher, where winds would likely disperse them unpredictably. If there were a campaign to introduce foreign chemicals to the population, it would be simpler and more effective to put them in the water supply (see water fluoridation for more on this), or the food supply; or if inhalation were necessary, to release them from ground-based vehicles.

All evidence presented by the conspiracy theorists focus on pictures of the sky. It is all perfectly consistent with contrails. No other evidence such as detection of chemicals or pictures of actual chemical spraying planes or documentation detailing the government's plan has ever been forthcoming.

Fighting the good fight

Websites devoted to raising awareness of chemtrails have failed to ignite the indignation of the masses to the extent that the chemtrails have stopped. So (in typical grand conspiracy fashion) the chemtrail believers claim that the powers that be, rather than revealing their evil purpose by overtly suppressing this knowledge, are covertly suppressing it by recruiting their agents in science and the media to ridicule it as bizarre, kooky and unbelievable.

Awareness-raising efforts having so far proven ineffective, the pseudoscientific practice of cloudbusting using orgone energy has now been brought to bear on the problem of chemtrails.[2]

Footnotes

  1. Clifford Carnicom-Chemtrails
  2. 2.0 2.1 Metatech-Chemtrails and cloudbuster tech
  3. L T Peçanha and G A Dos Reis - Functional heterogeneity in the process of T lymphocyte activation; all modes of T-cell activation, except PHA-induced mitogenesis, were blocked in a reversible and dose-related manner by Ba2+
  4. Rense.com Barium, Chemtrails and Immunosuppression
  5. Text of HR2977
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