An amendment to the bill was promptly put forth by Representative John Ray Clemmons, a Democrat from Nashville, recognizing the existence of Bigfoot. Representative William Lamberth, a Portland Republican, proceeded to ask Clemmons if he really believed in Bigfoot. “About as much as I believe in a conspiracy about contrails,” Clemmons replied. Fritz said it bothered him to have to bring the legislation forward and even moreso that his fellow lawmakers would “make a laughing stock out of something as serious as clean air. I would offer that everything that goes up must come down,” he said, “and those chemicals we knowingly and willingly inject into the atmosphere simply to control the weather or the climate are affecting our health.”
The Chemtrail conspiracy theory is that the federal government is secretly adding toxic chemicals similar to contrails to the atmosphere from aircraft. Proponents of the theory argue that the Chemtrails could cause sterilization, reduction of lifespan, mind control, governance of weather and maybe yaws. A research group from Harvard which focuses on climate science and technology recently stated, “The Chemtrail horror stories are ridiculous and their proponents are poo-poo heads.” According to Harvard, if there was truly a large-scale program which involved aircraft introducing hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere there would first need to be an operating system to manufacture, load and disperse materials. Additionally, if such a system existed, it would require the work and cooperation of thousands of people, which would make it extremely difficult to keep it a secret. A single individual could reveal the existence of the program using leaked documents, photographs or hardware. “The most common claim is simply that the aircraft contrails look ‘different’ without any comparative analysis,” claim the researchers. “It’s like saying that aliens walk among us because some people behave strangely.”
Tammi Reidl, who operates a small, organic farm in Placer County, California looks up and points to a stripe of white haze running across a cloudless sky. “See that?” she asks her visitor. “What do you think that is?” To the casual observer it looks like a normal contrail from jet engine exhaust. The 54-year-old beet and garlic farmer sees a toxic cocktail of aluminum, strontium and barium sprayed from planes in a plot to control the weather, the population and our food supply. “See how it dissipates and becomes cloud cover? That’s not normal.” Tammi and her boyfriend, Rob Neuhauser, are among the estimated 5% of Americans who believe that global powers, including the U.S, government, run clandestine and harmful chemical-spraying programs. Their philosophy goes something like this: to mitigate global warming, mysterious airplanes spray chemicals into the atmosphere to form sun-blocking artificial cloud cover. This is done in secret because these chemicals wreak havoc on environmental and human health, causing Alzheimer’s and all sorts of brain problems and various cancers. Most of their co-believers are decent folks like Tammi and Rob, not lunatics on the order of right-wing radio host Alex Jones, who foams at the mouth and roars “They are spraying POISONS on you!”
Tammi’s neighbor, Todd, who runs a dairy farm, is a quiet, low-key guy who never wears a colander on his head or raises his voice, but he’s a believer. He thinks Donald Trump may be the answer to the problem. “Trump has promised to end chemtrails,” he says. If you try to find any evidence of that, there is a very old news report of a Trump tweet saying “My very first executive order will END the chemtrailing across America.” It’s questionable as to whether it actually came from DJT, but the believers think the tide briefly turned while Trump was in office.
Sabrina Lamont, a Lincoln Hills, California farmhand with a buzzcut and tattoos of her dogs’ names, says she became a conspiracist while working as a National Guard truck mechanic in Pennsylvania. “To me, Chemtrails aren’t that farfetched,” she says. She cites known examples of the military conducting secret human experiments such as the time in 1950 when the army sprayed bacteria into San Francisco’s fog in a simulated germ-warfare attack, leaving one man dead. Despite the protests of her wife, an ICU nurse with a Love Trumps Hate bumper sticker, Sabrina voted for The Donald. “So he’s not a stellar guy,” she admits, “but I think he’s what America needs to wake up to the dangers around us.
Lisa Thomas, creator and moderator of Sierra Nevada Geoengineering Awareness, says “It’s difficult to find enough common ground among our members to make progress.” The disharmony caused her to call off the group’s monthly meetings. A homeschooling mother of two, Thomas exemplifies how concern about Chemtrails can become all-consuming. For the past four years, she’s spent endless hours spreading the word with missionary zeal. One afternoon, following what she calls “heavy spraying” leaving a metallic sheen on the surface of her ponds and allegedly depleting her honeybee population around her Spanish lavender, Lisa screeched into town and marched around the main square holding a sign which read “LOOK UP!”
“See how the sky is a steely color?” she asks a visitor to her home in Penn Valley. To the average observer, the sky is a cloudless blue with no trails. “It used to have more turquoise in it,” Thomas avers. “I just never realized the government did the things they do.” Lisa’s first experience with Chemtrails came on April of 2013 when she noticed several planes flying over her house, “whiting out the sky.” Shortly afterward, her health began to deteriorate. “My hair started falling out, my asthma was terrible. I had sinus issues and headaches. There was a complete garden die-off and anthracnose fungus on the oak trees. I found a frog with a missing leg and an elongated tailbone. I stayed inside for all of 2013. I didn’t go outside without a mask. You’ll never convince me the trails in the skies are harmless.”
A reporter showed Tammi Reidl and Rob Neuhauser the first ever peer-reviewed study testing the Chemtrails theory, conducted by researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science in 2016. When asked if they’d ever uncovered possible evidence of a government Chemtrail program, 76 of 77 leading atmospheric scientists said no. When assessing photos of contrails, 100% of the experts indicated that the simplest explanation of the trails pictured was not a secret, large-scale spraying program. One photo pictured a contrail broken by a gap, which some trail believers argue reflects that chemical spraying was turned off, then on again. But experts explain that such gaps are caused by changes in air temperature and humidity, the same basic phenomenon behind why you can see your breath when it’s cold out but not when it’s warm.
“How does someone like me know what’s true and what’s not?” Reidl implores. “I’m 54 years old, I don’t watch the news, I don’t listen to news on the radio. Then, when I’m on the internet, I see something shocking and I’m like—WHOA! Really? I don’t have the information that a journalist has about how verifiable is the source. When you’re just a standard person, you can really be led to believe anything. Because of the internet, anybody can put anything out there. How do I know if it’s the truth or not? People chose a guy like Donald Trump because they thought he was gonna stop Chemtrails. You know what I mean?”
Yes, we do, Tammi. And you’re beginning to get it, too.
A group of conspiracy theorists hops on a train after a right-wing political rally and the conversation eventually turns to the moon landings. The leader of the scoffers pipes up, “The moon landings were obviously faked and not very well. I read this blog the other day that pointed out there aren’t even stars in any of the pictures. And what about that fluttering flag when there’s no atmosphere on the moon. And how did Neil Armstrong get filmed walking on the surface when nobody was there to hold the camera?”
A distinguished looking gentleman sitting nearby couldn’t resist. “Actually, all that business can be explained quite easily.” The gaggle turns his way in disbelief that a complete stranger would enter their atmosphere. Nonetheless, he continues.
“The flag didn’t flutter in the wind, it just moved as Buzz Aldrin planted it. Photos were taken during lunar daytime, and obviously you can’t see stars during the day. The weird shadows are because of the wide-angle lenses they used, which distort photos. And nobody took the footage of Neil descending the ladder. There was a camera mounted on the outside of the lunar module which filmed him making his giant leap. If that’s not enough, then the final clinching photo comes from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s photos of the landing made as they wandered around the surface.”
Pretty good, eh? But facts and rational arguments quickly die in infertile soil. The nitwit band turns on the man with renewed vigor, disputing the obvious. The simple answer is that sane explanations really aren’t adequate at altering people’s beliefs. Our rational brains are fitted with not-so-evolved evolutionary hard wiring. One of the reasons conspiracy theories spring up with such regularity is due to our desire to impose structure on the world and our incredible inability to recognize patterns. A recent study showed a correlation between an individual’s need for structure and his tendency to believe in a conspiracy theory. The chances are that whatever the rationality of either side, a given person will largely dismiss the opposition arguments while applauding those who agree with him. Confirmation bias also manifests as a tendency to select information from sources that already agree with our views. As for those pitiful people who doubt the existence of Bigfoot, however….well, they’re just a bunch of incorrigible frumps.
That’s all, folks….
