Chemtrails, according to some conspiracy theorists, are a trail of chemicals present in the sky that they believe to be a part of an underground operation. According to the activist group Bye Bye Blue Sky, the government is attempting “to control the weather” by inserting toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. 

The idea comes from the lack of ‘blue’ in the sky. It is a conspiracy theory based on what citizens, not experts, can visibly see: white plumes across the blue sky. The theory has been debunked by scientists, who explain the  white plumes in the sky are not the insertion of toxic chemicals in the atmosphere but rather water vaporization that forms from the engines of aircrafts, better referred to as contrails.

The belief of chemtrails stems from the concept of albedo modification, or in other words, solar geoengineering. It is true that governments in the past have tried to control weather. The Soviet Union had attempted weather control as far back as 1932 and China utilized cloud seeding, artificially adding condensation nuclei allowing it to precipitate, so the 2008  Olympics could take place. Weather modification through geo-engineering is being discussed as a course of action to dissipate climate change. 

Despite the conspiracy theory of chemtrails not having much evidence, social media has manipulated a myriad of people to believe in the notion of authorities hurting the environment. An international survey conducted in 2018 indicates that almost “17% of respondents thought the chemtrail theory was or partly true.”

The idea of chemtrails has only continued to spread through social media, with the only evidence of them being tests unreliable people have done on themselves and their pets. A woman in the United Kingdom  claimed, in a BBC interview,  that after testing her hair and soil, “ [she] was toxic in aluminum, barium, strontium, arsenic, manganese.”. The same woman believes that “her dog has been poisoned by a radioactive metal.”

 There has been no evidence for her claims but her statements have led a plethora of others to believe her. At the same time, a study conducted by the Carnegie Institute for Science and the University of California Irvine in 2016, noted that “98.7% reported no evidence of a secret large-scale atmospheric spraying programme.”

Although the theory of chemtrails has been debunked, these theorists are firm in their ground and continue to spread what they believe is the truth. While there is evidence of weather modification, there is no evidence for toxic chemicals being released into the atmosphere.