Images show contrails, not “chemtrails” from geoengineering

A Facebook post sharing several images of vapour trails behind an aeroplane appears to suggest they show “geoengineering” taking place.

The post is captioned: “Geoengineering aka (also known as) chemtrails and a close up I got of the spraying.”

Alongside the vapour trail images are pictures of a book authored by James W. Lee titled “Geoengineering aka Chemtrails & Humanity’s 6th Great Extinction Event”.

There’s no evidence these images show “geoengineering” in action, or an aeroplane “spraying” a chemical or other such substance. In fact they show contrails—white lines of water vapour that sometimes form behind planes.

We regularly fact check posts about the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory, which claims that these contrails actually contain chemicals deliberately being sprayed into the atmosphere.

No evidence images show “geoengineering”

The Met Office defines geoengineering as the “deliberate large-scale manipulation of climate”, adding that it “describes interventions and technologies which could be deployed to alter aspects of the global climate system to help tackle some aspects of global warming.”

It cites two particular examples of technologies in this area that could be described as “geoengineering”:

• Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR): “the use of natural and artificial means to take greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and sequester them for an extended period of time.”
• Solar Radiation Modification (SRM): “use of technologies to reflect some of the Sun’s energy that reaches Earth back into space, thereby reducing the Earth’s temperature to offset global warming.”

Both the Met Office and UN Environment Programme have described SRM in particular as involving “injecting aerosols” high into the atmosphere, so some sunlight is “deliberately reflected into space to cool the planet.”

As we’ve previously written, SRM is often linked to chemtrail conspiracy theories, with some claiming that the “chemicals” allegedly spread from planes are creating clouds which deflect some of the Sun’s energy. 

It was reported in 2021 that Bill Gates had offered financial support to a research programme at Harvard University which proposed testing SRM technology in Sweden. But the experiment was ultimately cancelled following opposition from indigenous and environmental groups in Sweden.

The current White House administration published a report earlier this year on solar engineering. However it confirmed it has no current plans to pursue a programme for SRM.

There is no evidence to suggest SRM technologies are currently being used on a significant scale, and the proposed use of the technology remains controversial.

Images show contrails, not “chemtrails”

The white lines seen behind planes, such as those in the images shared in this post are actually contrails—water vapour that freezes into ice crystals in the cold temperatures at high altitude forming long thin lines of cloud. 

Depending on the humidity of the air, the tiny ice crystals can either change directly from a solid to a gas (becoming invisible after a few minutes) or remain in the air as water or ice, sometimes staying visible for several hours. 

There is some discussion about the possible effects of contrail clouds on the world’s climate, but this is not a deliberate manipulation, and therefore not geoengineering.

Image courtesy of OldmanBrown17