# Question for contrail conspiracists **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2014, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533 "2014-07-07T12:38:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Gilbert1984](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Gilbert1984](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilbert1984)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/81 "2014-07-12T11:54:18Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > Any chemical in a “chemtrail” would be so diluted by the time it hit the ground that it would nearly worthless. Hah, that’s what you think. You obviously haven’t heard about the plan to develop homeopathic nerve gas. The weaker it is, the stronger the effect. The reason it hasn’t appeared yet is they haven’t been able to make it in sufficiently high doses for it to be safely handled. For some reason, interns have stopped applying to join the development program. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/82 "2014-07-12T12:01:04Z")
They’re spraying chemicals tailor-made to make people more likely to be chemtrail conspiracy theorists. The NSA boys thought it would be a great prank. ---
**Author:** ![taliesin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@taliesin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taliesin)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/83 "2014-07-13T15:49:53Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Doesn’t even have to hit your lungs. Drinking too much of it at once will also kill you. Its worse than that. Enough contact with chilled dihydrogen monoxide can kill you!! ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/84 "2014-07-13T16:12:36Z")
They are seeding the atmosphere with chemicals to produce noctilucent clouds in an attempt to improve the aesthetics of the night-time atmosphere in far-north latitudes. My friend who works in the secret HAARPS project let me in on this one after a late-night booze binge. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/85 "2014-07-13T20:49:53Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Contrails are water vapor, and are naturally emitted by jet aircraft under normal flying conditions. Because they remain in place for a prolonged period of time, and they dissipate, they could easily suggest themselves as ideal carriers for other materials besides water vapor – if the operators of the flights chose to do so. This doesn’t make any sense. Yes, contrails are natural. What value is gained by spraying supposed chemicals into them over just spraying those chemicals into the air directly? How are they ideal carriers, and how would you control where they carry the chemicals? > [@jtur88](#): > > It merges with the atmosphere, and circulates down to the lower levels where its effects can be felt by respirating organisms. Again, what is the value of spraying into the contrail? About the only value I could see is masking, i.e. hiding the chemical trail by using a natural phenomenon for cover. But the contrail itself wouldn’t contribute any value to the chemical dispersal. > [@jtur88](#): > > The government has the technical capability. To spray chemicals into the atmosphere behind airplanes? Sure. > [@](#): > > The government has the opportunity. To use some airplanes to spray chemicals into the atmosphere, sure. To use all commercial airlines for that purpose, no way. > [@](#): > > The government has the enforceable secrecy to escape detection. Bullshit. Someone already mentioned Eric Snowden. How about Area 51? See how secret they kept it’s existence? > [@](#): > > The government has a history of nefarious business as well as ill-conceived misadventures. So? That doesn’t prove anything about this supposed instance of nefarious business and ill-conceived misadventure. > [@](#): > > The government has the motive to at least test the principle to see if it might have useful application in distributing harmful agents for warfare, crowd control, etc. I suppose they could have the motive to test something as ridiculous and uncontrollable as mind control agents dispersed in the upper atmosphere to somehow affect the population in a controlled manner, measure the results, and protect themselves from these same blanket effects. But it seems preposterous, and there would be far more effective delivery methods. Like drinking water. > [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > I got into this end of it with my friend too. Very impractical way of accomplishing… what exactly? Even if you had the means to dump chemicals in that manner, why would you? He seemed to think it was to do with weather control, which again raised the question… why? > > If I were a super-villain, what would that sort of subtle weather control do for me? Say chemtrails, as envisioned by the CT crowd, actually could CAUSE global warming. Why would you? In order to corner the market on those new light bulbs? I could think of an easier way to make a buck without having to bother with covert, costly and inefficient chemical spraying. There are real experiments in weather control, it’s called cloud seeding. The idea is to create clouds and force rainfall. Attempts have been made to reduce the build up of tropical storms, for instance, by forcing them to rain early and thus lose moisture. Apparently the British government accidentally caused flash floods that killed dozens of people. See [Operation Cumulus](http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/what-are-chemtrails1.htm) in the box. > [@CurtC](#): > > [What Are Chemtrails? Furious Arizona Residents Demand Answers On Popular Conspiracy Theory | IBTimes](http://www.ibtimes.com/what-are-chemtrails-furious-arizona-residents-demand-answers-popular-conspiracy-theory-1615766) I took a look at some of the comments. > [@](#): > > **Perry Snee** : HIGH BYPASS-TURBOFAN JET ENGINES CANNOT PRODUCE CONTRAILS - because of the high pressure at exhaust due to the front intake fan acting like a propeller! The TURBOFAN is the THRUSTER (\>80% thrust from the FAN), not so much the turbine exhaust as what most think! ALL commercial jets, and large military craft use the HIGH BYPASS-TURBOFAN jet engine And yet **Bridget Burke** has posted a picture of an RB-36 turbo_prop_ airplane creating contrails. That means turbo-propeller. [What causes the contrail](http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/wxwise/contrail.html) is a combination of exhaust temperature, pressure, and ambient relative humidity (i.e. vapor pressure) vs exhaust humidity. Turbofan engines do have a high bypass ratio and get their thrust from the fan as a propeller, but they still burn fuel and dump that exhaust into their wake. That generates the high temp/high humidity conditions to form contrails. [Here](http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz/science/contrail.php?wfo=fgz) is a page from the National Weather Service Forcast Office from NOAA. > [@MostlyUseless](#): > > I will say that the last CTer I heard, said that contrails weren’t always bad ones; it was only the contrails that were really persistent in the sky that were the chemtrails. That’s a cover response. They see the contrail. “The government is spewing stuff!” They are told about contrails and how they are natural. So they look for a way to justify their belief, by differentiating between “natural” contrails and the evil chemtrails. Aha, duration. Yeah, that’s the ticket. > [@Jragon](#): > > In Tucson, most of the chemtrail signs people nail up on telephone poles I see seem to imply the government is spraying Agent Orange (or some modification thereof). I’m not sure why, but apparently that’s what the ones around here believe. > [@dropzone](#): > > Isn’t Agent Orange a defoliant? I’ve been to Tucson and I gotta ask, how could you tell it had been defoliated? It sorta came that way, didn’t it? > [@MostlyUseless](#): > > I grew up in Tucson and since 1970, the look of Tucson hasn’t changed. It is a freaking desert why would you need to defoliate a desert? That is just criminally stupid. I would assume the intent has nothing to do with defoliation. Back in Vietnam when agent orange was introduced, it was being used as a defoliant. Then we discovered the harmful side effects. Now the presumed use is the harmful effect, and defoliation is just an unnecessary side effect for the true purpose, poisoning Arizonans. This [HowStuffWorks page](http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/what-are-chemtrails1.htm) is informative on CT ideas. It states the reason for seeding barium is apparently to assist in radar mapping for defense purposes. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/86 "2014-07-14T13:04:52Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > There are no tanks. The government perfected teleportation decades ago by reverse-engineering the toilets on the UFO that crashed in Roswell. > > There’s a teleportation unit at the back of each plane and the chemicals are spewed out as they materialize. That’s what it is! The government got a Waste Disposal contract with the aliens! Toilet + teleporter + airplane at 35,000 feet = nobody notices we’re all covered in alien shit. ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/87 "2014-07-14T15:54:31Z")
Your one stop shopping place for chem trail information: [http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2013/03/30](http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2013/03/30) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/88 "2014-07-14T23:28:39Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > That’s what it is! The government got a Waste Disposal contract with the aliens! I thought all waste disposal companies were owned by the Mob. Does that mean that the Mob is run by aliens from outer space, or are you just talking about Sicilians? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/89 "2014-07-15T07:19:40Z")
Chemtrails are pest control. They’re spraying to keep down the population of rods. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/90 "2014-07-15T13:19:45Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I thought all waste disposal companies were owned by the Mob. Does that mean that the Mob is run by aliens from outer space, or are you just talking about Sicilians? Is Death on the line? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/91 "2014-07-15T16:22:19Z")
> [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](#): > > Your one stop shopping place for chem trail information: > [Chemtrails Special | Coast to Coast AM](http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2013/03/30) Coast to Coast is also your one stop for info on alien abductions, paranormal events, the New World Order, the mass population reduction conspiracy and most other types of crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/92 "2014-07-15T18:14:27Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Coast to Coast is also your one stop for info on alien abductions, paranormal events, the New World Order, the mass population reduction conspiracy and most other types of crazy. They have been teaming up with Alex Jones lately. ---
**Author:** ![Toaster34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Toaster34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toaster34)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/93 "2014-07-16T22:18:36Z")
If anyone really thought about what it would tale to actually spay anybody from 30,000 feet and have an actual effect, You would have to spray an AWFUL LOT of material. Dispersal of any material from 6 miles up is going to be huge. Where do these planes have the storage tanks for all that stuff? The weight alone of what would be needed would make the plane too heavy to fly… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533/94 "2014-07-21T21:11:16Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > I grew up in Tucson and since 1970, the look of Tucson hasn’t changed. It is a freaking desert why would you need to defoliate a desert? That is just criminally stupid. Actually, if you look at it from their point of view, it would make sense: Agent Orange is indeed a defoliant, but people weren’t up in arms about it being deployed in Vietnam because it got rid of the trees (well, I’m sure some eco-conscious folks were, but they weren’t the majority of the protestors), it’s because it’s also really dangerous to humans. Spray it in an area like Tuscon, the only thing that you have to worry about it affecting negatively are the humans (which is, per the nut jobs, what it’s being deployed for) not the trees (since there are none), I don’t think even the WONJCTs are concerned that they are “spraying Agent Orange in Tuscon” (yeah, whatever) because of the trees, they’re concerned that they’re doing it as population control I’m guessing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-contrail-conspiracists/692533.md?page=4)