Now We Have to Talk About Chemtrails Because Yet Another Fringe Conspiracy Has Infected Gullible Lawmakers
by Kevin Reed
In Wilmington NC, there used to be a fascinating serpentarium that housed a wide variety of reptiles. It was a professionally run, local gem that closed down in 2018 after the untimely death of its original founder. An interesting part of the experience, however, had nothing to do with reptiles. In the lobby, there were murals detailing the threats of chemtrails.
A citizen reads about the dangers of chemtrails even as he’s being peppered by harmful chemicals in this mural warning people of the dangers.
The images on the murals show people going about their lives, completely unaware that jet planes were pumping damaging chemicals into the atmosphere above . “Put down your iPod and look up!” the posters yelled. A man reads The Daily Wakeup Call newspaper with the headline “Chemtrails and Morgellon’s Disease?” and a weather forecast of “Sunny until Chemtrails.”
One image showed a family Christmas card with two parents and two children, all sitting by the tree looking physically exhausted with sunken eyes and open sores all over their skin. The card reads “Happy Holidays from the Morgellons Family.”
This poor family has been emaciated by the imaginary non-medical condition Morgellon’s disease - all from pesky chemtrails.
Per the Mayo Clinic “Morgellons disease is a form of delusional parasitosis. Delusional parasitosis is a condition in which a person has a fixed, false belief that they are infected by an organism [or fibers from chemtrails, as the conspiracy goes] despite evaluation not showing an infection to be present. This is also called delusional infestation.” So, there is no such condition beyond believing it, which is perfect for a conspiracy, because then you have reason to “distrust” the doctors, distrust medicine, and not trust anyone except the person telling you the conspiracy. You are now misinformed and firmly controlled.
Yet another mural image shows people fighting back with masks and determination. They will not sit idly by and be poisoned by chemtrails!
These people are on to the whole chemtrail scheme, and are protecting themselves with masks. Not sure how that helps with skin conditions, but hey.
When I was visiting in 2014, I took photos of these murals because conspiracy theories are fascinating. And when they’re just conspiracy theories, they’re fun. Back in 2014, I thought critical thinking and reason would just keep gaining ground over the years, so I wasn’t worried that chemtrails would become a real issue.
To some people, this plane is dumping harmful chemicals on us all day ever day. In real life, that’s mostly ice forming behind the aircraft as it hurdles through
But that shows how much I know, because today these fringe beliefs have gone more mainstream in particular circles, and are influencing key people in government. While there are not many chemtrail believers in government, we can see with things like cloud seeding how these ideas spread around inside certain groups, even when they don’t have a shred of evidence to back them up. And then we spend time babbling about something that doesn’t exist while we ignore real challenges that need intelligent mitigation.
Recently, Robert Kennedy Jr, the current United States secretary of health and human services, was on the Dr. Phil show. Now, that’s a problem right out of the gate, but let’s ignore that and move on to an exchange he had with a concerned citizen during the “town hall” style show.
Concerned citizen: “My biggest concern is the stratospheric aerosol injections that are continuously peppered on us every day. Bromium. Aluminum. Strontium. It’s sprayed in our skies all day long. How do we stop it?”
Now, this would be a great opportunity for someone to politely and respectfully let this person know what A) there is no evidence of people spraying these things on us every day and B) that bromium is not a chemical compound, though it is mentioned as one in chemtrail conspiracy theory channels. There is no known element, molecule, or compound called “bromium” in any legitimate chemical literature or periodic table (I had to look that up, because I’m not a chemist), though it’s likely confused with barium. While responding, the person could add: “You’ve been misled by conspiracy theories. Let me direct you to accurate information and some sources around critical thinking skills.”
Did RFK do that? Well, of course not, he’s RFK. So instead, he says, “It’s done, we think, by DARPA, and a lot of it now is coming out of the jet fuel. Those materials are in jet fuel.”
Except literally none of those things are in jet fuel, especially not bromium, since that doesn’t exist.
And then he points to DARPA, which is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. They’re responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Any person can reason through this. How many planes is DARPA flying around? Zero, since they don’t have fleet of planes, which immediately makes it more challenging for them to be peppering us with chemicals from jet exhaust. They could make some sort of agreement with the USAF, but there aren’t that many USAF planes buzzing overhead unless you’re near a base or training location. Maybe DARPA partners with commercial jets to put harmful chemicals in the fuel, but there would literally be no way to keep that quiet and get it all through regulation - globally. And the big question would be “why?”
But ultimately, even if DARPA were slinking around peppering us with chemicals from the sky, RFK is chums with the President. If Trump wanted “chemtrails” gone, all he’d have to do is make a single call over to the DoD. Wouldn’t take long. Here’s the chain of command: DARPA; DoD; President.
How did we get to this ridiculous position?
First and foremost, too many everyday people are not doing the most basic of research on a topic. What’s in a “chemtrail?”
The exhaust from jet engines is actually called a “contrail.” Contrail is short for “condensation trail.” They form when hot, moist exhaust from jet engines mixes with cold air at high altitudes, typically above 26,000 feet. They are mostly made of ice crystals.
What else is in them?
Contrail composition
No peer-reviewed studies have found evidence of atmospheric spraying inconsistent with jet engine emissions and natural background levels.
All of this started with a 1996 Air Force paper, Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025, meant as a fictional thought exercise, not a description of actual policy.
Around 1997–1999, writers like Richard Finke and William Thomas used the paper as evidence as they linked persistent contrails to chemical spraying. Thomas’s claims circulated widely on Art Bell–style radio and early internet forums.
By 2000, agencies such as NASA, FAA, EPA, and NOAA officially labeled chemtrail claims a hoax, attributing the effects to normal contrails. This only led to more “distrust” of government, of course, based on nothing. Through the 2000s, chemtrails showed up in political discourse and in local political circles during droughts.
Academic research, such as Mick West’s 2016 study in Environmental Research Letters, showed 98.7% of experts rejected the existence of secret spraying programs – but that’s just another reason for certain groups to question research and experts!
Chemtrails got a boost from “distrust” of the government during COVID in the form of geoengineering proposals. RFK again publicly gave credence to chemtrail ideas, tying them into his broader environmental “skepticism.” At least eight U.S. states (e.g., Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana) introduced or passed chemtrail/solar radiation modification (SRM) bans, often using the language of conspiracy.
Who cares?
The conspiracy has jumped from fringe forums to lawmaking, with over a dozen states showing legislative interest. Public debates now blur lines between cloud seeding (a regulated weather tool with its own set of conspiracy theories like it causing the recent Texas floods) and chemtrail conspiracies, often for political gain or to deflect from climate change discourse. Scholars note that this reflects a broader cultural shift: events like Texas floods invoke fear and lack of trust, making conspiracies more appealing than complex explanations. (Even more reason not to trust universities! They’re in on it!)
As with cloud seeding hysterics around “weather control,” chemtrail drama cripples our ability to react to real life challenges like climate change, or flood mitigation, or the long list of other challenges we have to deal with. And without critical thinking skills, a significant portion of our population is susceptible to believing literally anything they’re told by authorities they agree with, which is a great way to pitch backward into the dark ages of authoritarian submission.
As adults who are on watch at this point in history, responsible for children and our species’ future, this is not a sustainable or productive path forward. To fix it, we only need to employ the most basic critical thinking skills.
We can do it.
