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Have you heard of chemtrails, those strange cloud-like trails sometimes seen in the skies above? If you have heard of them, do you fear them? Do you believe that these chemtrails might be connected to your ongoing health problems or that they are the cause of recent destructive earthquakes? Do you believe that powerful, covert forces are spraying death from above, and that a massive conspiracy is hiding this evil intent from the general public?

More likely you haven't heard of chemtrails, and even the few of you that have probably giggle at how seemingly intelligent people could be so gullible. Why on spying strange clouds do they embrace and spread the silly conspiracy theory that we are being attacked?

• What are chemtrails?
• Why are we being sprayed?
• Who is doing the spraying?
• Do we in NZ need to worry?
• The conspiracy theory that is chemtrails
• What evidence is there for chemtrails?
• Some problems with their silly conspiracy theory
• Some insight from the conspiracy's grassroots
• Conclusion
• Readers' Comments
• Links to Articles

The term chemtrails is evidently short for chemical trails, visible trails of chemicals that are sprayed from aircraft. They are similar to contrails, those smoke-like trails that are sometimes left by high flying jets. The difference is that contrails are merely trails of water vapour from jet exhausts that some jets create under certain atmospheric conditions, and are harmless. Chemtrails on the other hand are clouds or trails of chemicals that are deliberately sprayed over certain areas to achieve a certain goal. A small plane spraying pesticides or herbicides on crops or fertiliser on paddocks would be a very small scale and localised example of chemical spraying that we in NZ are all familiar with. However chemtrails are different in scale, perhaps affecting an entire country, or perhaps even the entire planet, chemtrails evidently being observed in most every country on Earth. Also the public hasn't been told that it's even going on, let alone told what the mysterious chemical spray is designed to achieve. Authorities have denied that any mass chemical spraying is even being undertaken.

That at least is what the chemtrail proponents want the public to believe, that some unknown powerful force is spraying humanity as if we were some annoying bug that they wished to exterminate, or at least control. They insist that we are indeed being sprayed and that a massive and powerful conspiracy has kept this knowledge from the general public. Seemingly only the truly intelligent, skeptical and open minded among us have realised that mysterious, powerful, evil forces are pitted against us. No, seriously, they really believe this.

So who might these evil forces be? A group within the American government, our own government, Satan, advanced aliens or some secret group such as the Freemasons or the Illuminati? What reasons might they have for attacking us with toxic chemicals, and what evidence is there that this is even happening, that these perceived 'chemtrails' are not simple contrails or just clouds or other natural atmospheric phenomena? Let's look at these questions, firstly why.

Why are we being sprayed?

The reasons offered for the existence of these chemtrails are varied and no single reason is accepted by those silly enough to believe in them, they are in effect arguing with each other as well as with skeptics.

Some believe the chemtrails are designed for population control, either to prevent overpopulation, or in the most extreme case, to wipe out all life completely. Others claim that the chemicals are for mind control, either by controlling us with a form of hypnosis, by drugging us into a happy and placid state, or by lowering our intelligence and our ability to resist their commands. Still others insist that chemtrails are an attempt to control or even cause global warming and climate change. Yet others believe the chemtrails are a way of controlling the weather and/or creating earthquakes. These are the popular reasons, although there are others, limited only by your ignorance and paranoia it seems, such as a way of stopping human evolution and hiding the catastrophic approach of Planet X. Some proponents adopt one conspiracy and dismiss the rest as ridiculous, while some are happy to believe several, even though reason would suggest that they often contradict each other. Perhaps looking at who is attacking us will reveal their motivation?

Who is doing the spraying?

Like the proposed reasons for the chemtrails, the answer to who is supposedly creating them also varies greatly and chemtrail proponents are again arguing with each other.

In most cases it is evidently secret, powerful and clearly evil organisations that are bent on world domination and a new world order. Sometimes this means actual groups within real governments, meaning that the USA, Britain, Russia and even NZ etc may be the culprits. Only one government may be responsible, or several, or perhaps all are complicit, proponents can't agree. Some people describe these covert government groups as 'Black Ops', meaning black or secret operations, and point towards black helicopters and black SUVs, fill of people dressed in black. Others claim that secret organisations independent from governments are responsible, such as the Illuminati or the Masons. The chemtrail proponents equally seduced by religion argue that God is directly involved, somehow. You may have also noticed that one reason offered for why we are being spayed is to wipe out humans completely, and wonder what group would attempt this foolhardy move? Aliens, that's who, nasty aliens that want this planet for their own. The alien group that receives most of the blame is the alien described as the shape-shifting reptilian alien. This is the alien that the moronic conspiracy theorist David Icke pushes in his books and lectures, and Icke maintains that Queen Elizabeth and others of the British royal family are actually these reptilian aliens. This might explain some of their royal arrogance with regards to the rest of us, but if arrogance, pretentiousness, eccentricity or simply people that have trouble fitting into society signalled aliens in human form, then we are surrounded by these aliens. But we don't believe these aliens even exist, let alone are killing us with their chemtrails.

So the three main culprits are either our own governments, acting independently or most likely with other governments, secret organisations that most of the public believe don't even exist, such as the Illuminati, evil Jewish cabals (and maybe even Hogwarts or Jedi Knights), or dastardly aliens bent on our destruction. There are even some who believe all three groups are working together to achieve their ends. But are they really?

Do we in NZ need to worry?

Yes, according to those that research these things. The trigger that prompted us to write this article debunking chemtrails was being sent a link to this website: 'NORTHLAND NEW ZEALAND CHEMTRAILS WATCH', run by conspiracy theorist Clare Swinney, a website advertised as 'A Place To Post Information About Your Sightings of Chemtrails & More'.

We'd heard of people discussing chemtrails they'd sighted overseas, and paid them scant attention, but now it's claimed that we're also being sprayed, and since this is where we live, it makes sense to check the claims out. And what better place to start than a website run by a Kiwi, one with a M.Sc. (Hons), and one supported by other Kiwis. Surely this site will be more relevant to what's happening here. So in this article we'll sometimes link to an argument made on the NORTHLAND NEW ZEALAND CHEMTRAILS WATCH website, either made by Clare Swinney herself, or to arguments of other chemtrail proponents that she provides. We could have chosen any of the many websites found worldwide that are promoting belief in chemtrails, since the arguments and evidence they offer is pretty much the same. When one site links to some supporting photo or article, then very quickly they all do, which is to be expected in any field. After looking at other chemtrail websites, and seeking to be exposed to the typical, and one would assume, the best arguments for chemtrails, Swinney's NORTHLAND NEW ZEALAND CHEMTRAILS WATCH website seems to be as good a site as any other. And OK, continually referring to Swinney's NORTHLAND NEW ZEALAND CHEMTRAILS WATCH website is too much of a mouthful, so from now on we'll just say Swinney's website. And again, even though we may link to a quote on her website, remember that these arguments generally hold sway across the entire chemtrail world. Let's not lose sight of the fact that we are debunking the widespread notion of chemtrails, not just the arguments on Swinney's website, since the arguments found on her site are essentially those of the chemtrail conspiracy. We hope our arguments will convince anyone who looks into chemtrails that no matter which chemtrail website or forum they look at, be it in NZ, the USA or wherever, their arguments are all the same and thus fail for the same reasons. And importantly, this is not about the people making the arguments, but the arguments themselves.

So, Swinney's website is a NZ site that welcomes photos, videos, comments and discussion on chemtrails. It could be seen as the mirror opposite of our site, 'Silly Beliefs', since while we also welcome discussion on chemtrails, our feeling is that the evidence says they don't exist, whereas this other site argues that they most definitely do. Because of the silly conclusions they reach, we view chemtrail proponents as paranoid, ignorant, deluded and irrational, whereas they view us skeptics as close-minded idiots and/or immoral shills, and some happily leave comments on our site to remind us. We may all be convinced that people that see things differently to us have lost the plot, but at the end of the day, only cogent arguments will change minds, insults won't. Since we first wrote this article we've received comments from various chemtrail proponents expressing their view of our stance, and their typical view is quite negative. Here's a representative sample of their comments:

'you are an idiot — or a group of idiots — paid for by the system to disinform and confuse — but those of us who are idiots know all about you. Why don't you wake up — no LOOK UP dick'

'what is the 'shit' they are spraying you schmuck. Who paid you for your bullshit'

'This website is an attempt to help and aid the powerful few in 'dumbing down of society' And created by closed and conditioned minds, that know very little of reality'

'How much are getting paid to spread untruth? Lol'

'Just go outside when the sky is hazy, and do all of humanity a favor and breath deeply. One less troll with which to contend ... you just appear to be incredibly ignorant.'

'You Guy's, are a bunch of nutters that need brain adjustment.'

'who pays you to deny the obvious. A yank shit Kicker or government stooge?'

'Lying greedy cheats and cover up merchants like you have limited time.'

But for the record, none of the above email comments were made by Swinney, and even that offensive image advocating action wasn't created by her, she merely features it on her page. Apart from an angry phone call from Swinney to our "admin" department back in 2011, Swinney has made no attempt to contact us and debate our stance on chemtrails. Her first and only email to 'Silly Beliefs' arrived some five years later and finished with this demand:

'I insist that you take the entire page down immediately before I take further action.'

The conspiracy theory that is chemtrails

We described Swinney as a conspiracy theorist, so what do we mean that? It's someone who believes in one, and usually many, conspiracy theories, and for that term, let's use historian Daniel Pipes' definition, 'a conspiracy theory is the fear of a nonexistent conspiracy'. Of course Pipes' accepts, as do we, that conspiracies can be real, a conspiracy being 'An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act', but Pipes' says conspiracy theories 'exist only in the imagination'. As well as believing the chemtrail conspiracy theory and that man-made climate change is a hoax, Swinney also claims that 'the official story of 9/11 was a fraud', and that the attacks were 'orchestrated/perpetrated by some officials inside the US Administration'. So strongly, and proudly, does she believe this that she wrote and published widely online ('on major alternative news sites') an article revealing that she was at one time called delusional, and that she so worried those around her that she was held in a psychiatric ward. Simply, she believes, for saying that 9/11 was an inside job. Now that's commitment to a belief. She also believes that in addition to 9/11, we've also been lied to about who was responsible for the 2005 London bombings, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 2005 Bali bombings, but let's just stick with the chemtrail conspiracy theory for now.

Conspiracy theory websites and posts are often littered with pseudoscience, meaning phrases that sound scientific but that are actually bogus, which reveals that those that wrote them don't understand science, or that they are deliberately trying to deceive. Physicist Milton Rothman described pseudoscience as 'a false science that pretends to be real'. For example, in one post on Swinney's website we're informed that 'Chemtrails ... can fill an otherwise clear-blue sky with an unnatural-looking cloud cover within which the tell-tale signs of electromagnetic gravity waves can emerge'. The phrase we underlined is utterly bogus. You can have electromagnetic waves and gravity waves, but there is no such thing as 'electromagnetic gravity waves'. Furthermore, using very sensitive, very large and very expensive detectors scientists have not yet been able to detect the presence of gravity waves, so it is again utter nonsense to suggest that you and I could detect their tell-tale signs by simply looking at an 'unnatural-looking cloud'.

Be it chemtrails or the moon landing hoax, the problem is that most people that fall for these conspiracy theories know little of science, but may have heard of phrases such as gravity waves from news items or sci-fi movies. And they no doubt trust that people that claim to have science degrees, and that use such complex scientific phrases in their posts, are being factual. Everything sounds a little bit more believable if it's couched in scientific terms.

For example, chemtrail proponents sometimes refer to chemtrails as 'STRATOSPHERIC AEROSOL GEOENGINEERING' (among other names), which give them a real pseudoscientific ring. That's because chemtrails will likely seem more believable if it's thought that scientists call them stratospheric aerosol geoengineering, the big scientific name suggesting that they're taking them seriously. For example, here's some quotes from six different websites arguing for the reality of chemtrails that all see Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering and chemtrails as being one and the same (We've underlined the crucial text):

• 'Video: Owning The Weather In 2025 - Chemtrails HAARP Space Lasers
  CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE: In 2010 Aerospace Engineers published conclusive evidence for Covert Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering, (aka "Chemtrails")'
• 'Ozone « Chemtrails: The Exotic Weapon
  Radio with Madison Ruppert, Dane Wigington returns with more bombshell information on stratospheric aerosol geoengineering (better known as chemtrials)'
• 'Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering - The Invisible Elephant in the Room
  The subject of Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering (aka Chemtrails)'
• 'This program is entitled "Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering" (SAG). The popularized name of the visible jet plumes is "Chemtrails".'
• 'Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering (aka Chemtrails) Facts
  Scientists and governments refer to, what is commonly known around the world as Chemtrails (not to be confused with normal jet contrails)'
• 'Geoengineering: The directive to ban Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering AKA Chemtrails'

Swinney points out that 'Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering, (SPICE), Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering, (SAG) and solar engineering, amongst other names', are terms 'used by academics and governments, who refer to the injection of aerosol particulates into the stratosphere as this', their claimed purpose being to 'mitigate global warming'. However, Swinney also believes that '"man-made global warming" has been exposed as a hoax', so clearly when academics talk of Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering etc, she and other chemtrails proponents believe they are code words for chemtrails. Since there is no global warming to combat, then clearly, they believe, these aerosol trails or chemtrails, call them what you will, are being used for purposes quite different to what academics and governments are stating publicly.

Let's be clear here, academics and governments do indeed discuss, and even experiment with, geo-engineering, for example, as it pertains to climate change and weather modification, eg cloud seeding. But this is not what chemtrail proponents claim they are seeing. We shouldn't confuse benign attempts at weather modification with evil conspiracies. We don't say that no company is spraying anything in the atmosphere, we say no powerful, covert forces are spraying death from above, forces intent on the likes of mind control, population control, creating devastating earthquakes or world domination. We know, for example, that the US military sprayed the toxic defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, intended to kill the vegetation, not enemy troops. A few years ago people living in Auckland would have seen low flying aircraft spraying parts of their city, but the flights were designed to kill an invasive butterfly, not the local citizens. So yes, deliberate spraying by aircraft can sometimes be witnessed around the world, for numerous reasons, such as pest control, fire fighting, attempted weather modification and geo-engineering, the manipulation of the environment. But should geo-engineering and other forms of spraying, done openly to benefit humans, not to harm us, be confused with chemtrails, the widespread covert spraying that is harmful, indifferent and callous in its application?

Swinney writes that 'Chemtrails should not be confused with stratospheric aerosol geoengineering', and yet she does just that, since she talks of aerosol trails and on her website she conflates chemtrails with geo-engineering by having a link to their 'FILM PAGE ON CHEMTRAILS/GEOENGINEERING IN NORTHLAND'. She says that we skeptics unfairly 'ridicule chemtrail/ aerosol trail spraying/geo-engineering proponents', and that we're selective in what we reveal, for example, we don't 'mention that Sir Richard Branson and Bill Gates have funded geo-engineering'. But surely all this referencing of geo-engineering alongside chemtrails, writing phrases such as 'chemtrails/ geo-engineering', suggests that they are one and the same? Swinney further confuses the issue by noting that 'what people typically refer to as "chemtrails" are sprayed into the troposphere and were referred to as an 'exotic weapon' in HR-2977'. Did you get that? Her argument is that chemtrails are sprayed into the troposphere, the region of the atmosphere that we breath, while geo-engineering happens much higher up, in the stratosphere. So her talk of Bill Gates funding geo-engineering is a red herring, cunningly thrown out to mislead us, since, according to Swinney, chemtrails and geo-engineering happen in different regions. So why talk of chemtrails and geo-engineering interchangeably as many do, if they're completely different beasts? And what of the argument that Swinney mentioned, that chemtrails 'were referred to as an 'exotic weapon' in HR-2977'. That certainly sounds very official.

H.R. 2977 was the designation of a bill that went before the US Congress, but was never passed, also called the 'Space Preservation Act of 2001'. Amazingly, two of the aims of this bill were apparently to 'Allow the use of suppressed alien technology for free energy', and to 'Avoid accidentally shooting down (or scaring away) visiting aliens'. The initial bill, the one that mentioned chemtrails, had a list of weapons and technologies to be banned, including extraterrestrial weapons, psychotronic weapons, climate and tectonic weapons, and yes, chemtrails. By their simple mention, the document writers implied that extraterrestrial weapons, that's technology stolen from aliens; psychotronic weapons, that's mind control, ESP and the ability to control the physical world with your mind; climate weapons, that's weather modification used as a weapon; tectonic weapons, that's weapons that create earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; along with chemtrail weapons, all actually exist in the real world and are a genuine threat that need to be banned. They could have just as easily added magic wands and evil curses as exotic weapons. Apparently the bill was written by two UFO enthusiasts, and you can read the full story here or here. Congressman Dennis Kucinich then presented it, without reading it first apparently. When he realised what it said about chemtrails etc, he had it re-written, but it still failed to pass. When later quizzed about its initial aims, he replied: 'I'm not into that. Understand me. When I found out that was in there, I said, "Look, I'm not interested in going there".'

So yes, chemtrails 'were referred to as an 'exotic weapon' in HR-2977'. but bringing this to our attention is as ridiculous and deceptive as saying that lightsabers, blasters and the Death Star were mentioned as 'exotic weapons' in the 'Star Wars' movies. HR-2977 certainly was presented as a serious document, and it did raise the threat of chemtrails, but it was rightly dismissed as deluded nonsense, and chemtrail believers are disingenuous in continually mentioning the document but refusing to reveal that it was later rubbished. Swinney even argues that because the original bill mentioned chemtrails, then that 'shows this technology exists', and she implies that the chemtrail reference was removed to hide their existence, ignoring the rational view that reference to chemtrails, and extraterrestrial weapons etc, were removed to make it more believable and realistic, and yet it still failed to pass. Something they conveniently neglect to mention. This is a typical trait of conspiracy theories, where proponents deliberately circulate misleading stories that only tell part of the story, and even when the errors are pointed out to them, they refuse to stop.

Clare Swinney's personal claim to fame seems to be that she 'wrote for 'Investigate Magazine' from 2000-2005', before investing her 'energy in the alternative media', which to us is just further evidence that her grasp on reality is rather tenuous. Not that she didn't write for 'Investigate', the magazine run by Christian fundamentalist Ian Wishart, but that the implication is that this experience might have made her a believable investigative journalist. This was a magazine that regularly argued that Adam and Eve were real and Noah's Flood actually happened. That's not to say that there weren't factual articles in there as well, but how was the reader expected to know which was which? When some of Swinney's 9/11 conspiracy theories were mentioned on the Internet in 2006 with the implication that she might still work for the magazine, Ian Wishart of 'Investigate' magazine was quick to state that, '...Clare Swinney has not written for Investigate for nearly a year. None of what she is talking about now has appeared in Investigate, nor would it. Get your facts straight...'. So even 'Investigate' magazine, which is no stranger to pushing conspiracy theories and religious fantasies, is distancing itself from Swinney. And while happy to mention her time at 'Investigate' magazine, for some reason Swinney seems reluctant on her website to reveal that she has since been writing for 'UNCENSORED' magazine, which in comparison almost makes 'Investigate' seem like a paragon of truth and wisdom. Swinney calls the likes of 'UNCENSORED' magazine the 'alternative media', and in one of her chemtrail articles, she even refers readers to 'Nexus' magazine for support, another magazine that contains as much truth as a Superman comic. Our feeling is that anyone that writes or believes articles generally found in magazines like 'Investigate', 'UNCENSORED' and 'Nexus' is holding a view of reality that there is no evidence for, and often much evidence against.

We mention Swinney's work in the 'alternative media', meaning the fringe media that espouses views quite different to the mainstream media, because we believe it reveals something about her worldview, and therefore her credibility when it comes to us evaluating her chemtrail views. When someone places M.Sc. (Hons) after their name (prominently displayed on every page), and mentions that they wrote for 'Investigate Magazine' for several years (and then 'UNCENSORED'), we take it as their way of suggesting to readers that we should take their views seriously, since they apparently have the qualifications and experience to investigate the claims concerning chemtrails. So does she? In this NZHerald article on chemtrails by weather analyst Philip Duncan — Weather watch: Is it a conspiracy? — he 'asked Clare what her training was in this area and related education', and her reply was,

"As the government denies it is occurring, it is difficult to get training in this field, unless you work for them. However, I am particular about who I acquire information from. I use well-respected sources in their fields, and I have an M.Sc. (Hons)"

Let's look at it another way. We're atheists, so imagine if we came across a website arguing that the world is only 6,000 years old and evolution is a huge lie promoted by evil scientists. On this site the author mentions that they have a science degree and have written numerous articles for various creationist magazines. In our view that doesn't help his argument or increase his credibility, since close association with creationist magazines immediately suggests to us that its author is deluded, and is trying to support a belief that was debunked centuries ago. A creationist getting other creationists to vouch for his views is meaningless, since they're all pushing the same silly belief and will naturally support each other.

And likewise a conspiracy theorist demonstrating that the alternative media supports their views is futile. Swinney arguing that 'Investigate' magazine wrote supporting articles on chemtrails doesn't help her case, it's like the pope arguing that the Bible, like him, believes in God too. Swinney writes that 'Investigate' magazine's editor did acknowledge the existence of aerosol trails/chemtrails', but let's remember that 'Investigate' magazine's editor also acknowledged the existence of Adam and Eve and a talking snake. All of which clearly demonstrates our point, that in our view their articles are the work of deluded minds. Swinney asserts that our article (this article) 'blatantly lies to its readers', but we're not accusing Swinney or her fellow chemtrail proponents of lying. We suspect that they are quite sincere in their beliefs that 'The Powers That Be' are trying to harm them. They're not lying, they're simply deluded. And while some people might take that as an insult, as Swinney herself accepts, a delusion is by definition simply 'a false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence'. And since we, and most informed people, believe that there is plenty of invalidating evidence regarding chemtrails, and that talking snake and 9/11 as an inside job, then by definition people that write articles to the contrary are, from our perspective, deluded. Of course they would argue that we are the deluded ones.

So on to the post that started it all. On her chemtrail website Swinney raised this topic: 'Major Earthquake Strikes Near Christchurch — Was HAARP Technology Responsible?' This was the specific post that brought to our attention that NZ had its own chemtrail crowd. Swinney asked this question because she believes that 'chemtrails are used with HAARP technology... and this technology can be and is used to cause earthquakes. Furthermore, a chemtrail was apparent on the day of this quake, in the quake zone... ' Evidently Swinney suspects that it was an evil government with their HAARP weapon in unison with chemtrails that attacked Christchurch. We say 'evil government' because HAARP was controlled by the US government and clearly any government that secretly attacks other countries causing death and destruction must be evil. But if true, why was Christchurch targeted, was it something they said? And it's not just Christchurch, destructive earthquakes worldwide are being attributed to HAARP and chemtrails by conspiracy theorists. But what reason would the USA have for attacking both Christchurch and Haiti, for example? The US is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and not doing so well, so why direct a powerful weapon at Christchurch, one of their allies, rather than at their enemies? Remember also that the US operates out of the Christchurch airport for their Antarctic flights, so again, why attack your own people and facilities? What are those Americans up to? Let's also remember that people testing weapons of mass destruction don't test them on their own cities or those of their friends. The US when testing the atom bomb didn't drop one on Christchurch to see if it worked. This would suggest that the attack on Christchurch by HAARP wasn't a test, it was deliberate and designed to kill, so proponents must convincingly explain why if we are to take their claims seriously. This they have failed to do.

And HAARP is indeed a real American scientific research program — The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program — that is investigating the ionosphere, mainly from a facility in Alaska. According to Wikipedia they hope to develop 'ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance purposes'. Their research data is publicly available and they even allow citizens to tour the entire facility once a year, so they are not the top-secret group that conspiracy theorists pretend they are. According to computer scientist David Naiditch, HAARP is 'a magnet for conspiracy theorists' because 'its purpose seems deeply mysterious to the scientifically uninformed'. (Update: The HAARP research facility was decommissioned and closed by the US government in 2014. The facility was bought by the University of Alaska in July 2015, and is now back in operation. However it is no longer a government controlled facility.)

What evidence is there for chemtrails?

There are many Internet websites dedicated to alerting the public to the dangers of chemtrails, offering numerous photos and videos of nebulous trails in the sky. Swinney claims that there are literally millions of Google entries 'under the search terms 'YouTube' and 'chemtrails'.' But likewise there are untold photos and videos purporting to be of ghosts, alien spacecraft and even Santa Claus out there, so does that mean that ghosts, alien spacecraft and Santa are all real? No, they were just things that people confused for something else. It doesn't matter how many photos people have of something fuzzy in the distance, one inconclusive photo is little different to a million. And of course it's very easy to take these photos when in most cases chemtrails are indistinguishable from real contrails or real clouds. Having said that, contrails are not a common sight in much of NZ, whereas in certain states of the US they are everywhere, and this is where I saw my first contrails. I've seen more contrails in one hour in the US than I've seen in my entire life in NZ. Evidently the make-up of the atmosphere, the height of the jets, the amount of aircraft traffic etc all impact on whether contrails are a common sight.

Chemtrail proponents claim that it's often quite simple to tell chemtrails from contrails (and just as often that it's not). Swinney explains that 'Condensation trails from jet aircraft normally fade away within a minute', and also that you can tell that some 'trails can not be condensation trails, as they are not emanating from the engines, but from the wings'. But let's look at the definition of contrails (or vapour trails) as found in Encyclopedia Britannica:

'It forms upon condensation of the water vapor produced by the combustion of fuel in the airplane engines. When the ambient relative humidity is high, the resulting ice-crystal plume may last for several hours. The trail may be distorted by the winds, and sometimes it spreads outwards to form a layer of cirrus cloud. On rare occasions, when the air is nearly saturated with water vapor, air circulation at the wing tips of an airplane may cause sufficient pressure and temperature reductions to cause cloud streamers to form.'

Note also that on most photos where the plane can be clearly seen that it's quite obvious that the so-called chemtrails are coming from the engines, not some spray nozzle on the wings or fuselage, so they're contrails, not chemtrails. And here's a photo showing aerodynamic contrails from the wings rather than the engines, and while chemtrail proponents will argue that they're chemtrails, why would you be merrily spraying as you're coming in to land, in full view of everyone at the airport? Isn't it supposed to be a secret that these big commercial jets are fitted with spray tanks?

So the conflict arises when what we would call a contrail or a skinny cloud is misidentified as a chemtrail by those that claim there is a conspiracy afoot. These people offer their photos as evidence of the existence of chemtrails, but this is no different from someone showing us a photo of Queen Elizabeth and claiming that it actually shows a shape-shifting reptilian alien that merely looks like Queen Elizabeth. As we've said, amazingly some believers in chemtrails actually do believe that Queen Elizabeth is a shape-shifting reptilian alien and is connected to chemtrails. To us it seems a little specious to merely claim that chemtrails generally look the same as contrails, and that you can't usually tell them apart. Seriously guys, are photos of clouds really your best evidence?

So apart from pretty photos, do chemtrail proponents provide solid evidence that chemtrails aren't contrails, and that they are made of harmful chemicals rather than water vapour? No, they don't. The most these people do is to look for events that they are not happy with and try and suggest chemtrails are the cause. Some deduce that if their health is not as good as they believe it should be then they conclude that they have been poisoned. If they have a headache or are feeling lethargic or their IQ isn't as high as their work colleagues, then they assume they are being drugged, and that this is causing their symptoms. And the source of their exposure to these poisons/chemicals must have been that strange cloud they saw in the sky a week ago. Alcohol, obesity, drugs, an unhealthy lifestyle or even a real natural illness are not to blame, someone is deliberately poisoning them and making them ill. And on and on the silly reasoning goes. If the weather is overcast, when weather forecasts said it would be fine, then obviously someone is controlling the weather. If an earthquake strikes an area not known for quakes (or at least not known in their short memory), then obviously it wasn't natural, someone caused it. If a friend is having trouble getting pregnant, then obviously someone has suppressed her fertility. If another friend is struggling to pass exams, then obviously someone has lowered their IQ. Chemtrails are offered as the cause of these numerous problems, but never is evidence produced that chemtrails are truly the culprit, or indeed, that chemtrails even exist. Blaming chemtrails for their perceived problems is no different to Christians blaming Satan, or Scientologists blaming thetans, and just as silly.

While we're considering the evidence for chemtrails, we should mention a claim that is ubiquitous in the chemtrail world, one that chemtrail proponents repeatedly offer as solid evidence that chemtrails are made of toxic chemicals. It's "evidence" we've been criticised for not revealing, with the implication being that we're hiding anything harmful to our stance, so we've now added the KSLA story, and the evidence that isn't. The following description of the claim is typical, and is usually found verbatim on chemtrail forums:

'In 2008, a KSLA news investigation found that a substance that fell to earth from a high altitude chemtrail contained high levels of Barium (6.8 ppm) and Lead (8.2 ppm) as well as trace amounts of other chemicals including arsenic, chromium, cadmium, selenium and silver. Of these, all but one are metals, some are toxic while several are rarely or never found in nature. ...'

Brief Summary:

1. Samples of water were collected in August 2007, in Stamps Arkansas, by leaving some bowls outside
   for a month
2. The resultant dirty water was tested by KSLA and was found to have the same amount of barium in it
   as most municipal tap water.
3. The reporter misunderstood the results, and said there was a lot of Barium
4. The reporter now admits he was mistaken, and that he found no evidence for chemtrails

The reporter's mistake was that he incorrectly reported a barium result of 6.8 parts per million (ppm) rather than the actual result of 68.8 parts per billion, that's million not billion, which is a huge difference, taking it from safe to toxic. Chemtrail proponents deviously fail to reveal this mistake. And whoever wrote of this myth for the chemtrail crowd also falsely claimed that the water tested 'fell to earth from a high altitude chemtrail', when of course they have no evidence of this either. Assuming the water was collected as claimed, that the collection bowls were simply left outside for a month, clearly people have no concise idea where the sample came from, or when. No one saw the barium 'fall to earth from a high altitude chemtrail'. As the debunking article explains, the barium could have blown in as dust, since 'the dirt in Arkansas [is] one of the richest sources of barium in the US'.

Clearly the reason chemtrail proponents are forced to continually offer the bogus KSLA news investigation as evidence for chemtrails is because no real, robust evidence exists.

Let's now look at how ridiculous typical claims for chemtrails are.

Some problems with their silly conspiracy theory

In one post Swinney quotes Clifford E. Carnicom, who claims that chemtrails 'have at least seven functions. These are as follows: environmental modification and control, including weather control; biological operations; electromagnetic operations, including H.A.A.R.P., and cell towers; military applications; planetary and geophysical modification; a global surveillance system, and to detect ionic disturbances from exotic propulsion systems'.

We understand the last function mentioned — 'to detect ionic disturbances from exotic propulsion systems' — is nerd speak for detecting alien spaceships. But what really amazes us about this is that Carnicom believes, and apparently Swinney concurs, that chemtrails have the composition and complexity to perform not just one function, eg weather control, but at least six other completely independent functions as well. Chemtrails are the Swiss Army knife of weapons. But think about that. Scientists working for independent organisations and governments, and with no knowledge of chemtrail technology, are struggling to develop technology that will effectively perform a single one of those functions. Beyond some rudimentary tools, we have no weather control, no planetary modification, no global surveillance system and no alien detectors, And yet we're expected to believe that chemtrail scientists solved not just one of these major problems, but at least seven of them at once. And they didn't just develop seven different technologies to perform seven completely different tasks, they developed a single and amazingly simple tool — chemtrails made up of a simple mist of a few chemicals — that combined seven completely different functions in one application. Any one of the functions that chemtrail proponents attribute to chemtrails would be a huge scientific and technological advance, but to boldly claim that chemtrails are capable of 'at least seven functions' is utterly unbelievable. They can't provide good evidence that chemtrails perform even a single function, so it's just laughable to insist that they're responsible for everything from earthquakes and headaches, to watching us go to the supermarket and keeping an eye out for pesky aliens.

Most chemtrail proponents come from the USA and apparently this is where the nonsense first became popular, in the 1990s. Let's start with the popular assumption that covert departments within the US government, and only the US, are creating the chemtrails. Again, reasons offered cover population control, mind control, weather control etc. The question is not so much why they are doing it, but whether they could keep their efforts secret? This is not one or two people with a little crop-spraying plane flying over some small town. These are large planes, hundreds of them, flying over not just every state of the USA, but most countries on Earth, including NZ. Thousands of people, at least, must be employed to produce the chemicals, transport them to secret airports, fly the planes, maintain the planes, feed the crews, all the while keeping what they are doing secret. All the people manning US civilian and military radars and not privy to their mission must somehow be convinced to ignore their unusual flight paths. Every government on Earth must be prepared to ignore these strange planes that continually enter their air space and fly in grid patterns backwards and forwards across their country, spraying something. Even if the pilots and ground crew etc are not told the purpose of their flights and why their planes are fill of spray equipment, we're asked to believe that none are at all curious or worried about what they are spraying over their fellow citizens or the citizens of foreign countries. Even if only a few at the top know exactly what they are doing, it is utterly unbelievable that of thousands of support crew not a single one has been curious enough or suspicious enough to raise concerns with the media etc. Remember that these workers will have also read about chemtrails and the claims of poisoning, and yet evidently have still not connected what they do with these claims. Not one of thousands has thought of blowing the whistle. Remember also that the US has had both Republican and Democrat governments over the years, and while they claim to be opponents in the public eye, fighting over every policy change, both have supposedly agreed to keep the chemtrail operation secret. As we've said elsewhere, only two people knew about the blowjobs Monica Lewinsky gave President Clinton, and even that couldn't be kept a secret. We'll believe in fairies before we'll believe that thousands of Americans could, and happily would, keep the vile secret that they were obediently poisoning their fellow Americans, which would include their own family and friends.

Another version of this conspiracy removes the problem of foreign governments apparently not noticing strange planes spraying their countries by claiming that all governments have colluded, either allowing the Americans to enter and spray their countries or else agreeing to do the spraying with their own resources. Of course this just makes the problem of keeping chemtrails secret far worse. Now in addition to the Americans, we have thousands of Kiwis, Australians, British, Europeans, Russians etc that know all about chemtrails and are perhaps making them and yet still not one single person has blabbed about what is going on. Even countries and political parties that hate each other are perfectly willing to join with their enemies and keep chemtrails secret. Isn't it astounding that for decades every politician and military official from every country that are familiar with chemtrails have agreed for the need to continue with the spraying and to keep it secret? Every one from president and prime minister right down to those that fill the planes with chemicals and fuel is committed to hiding what they are doing from their family and friends. Every known organisation on the planet, including governments and the military, has its bad apples, employees that are more than willing to steal from and sell out their employers and country, and yet not one is prepared to gain wealth and fame by exposing the evil of chemtrails. Likewise, many organisations, including governments and the military, have people of integrity that willingly become whistleblowers when they learn of an injustice. But not it seems when it comes to the secret of chemtrails, the poisoning of fellow citizens, family and friends. Even the snoopy media that are always on the lookout for a great story, who broke the Watergate, Iran-Contra and Clinton/Lewinsky scandals, the Catholic priest sex scandals and recently the Rupert Murdoch phone hacking scandal, even they seemingly have agreed to ignore the chemtrail claims.

The logistics of spraying the entire planet, or even just a few countries, and keeping it secret from the public would be enormous and impossible. That not one person from among the thousands involved wouldn't disagree with chemtrails and spill the beans is totally unbelievable. Look at climate change and religion, even experts can't agree, but not one person involved with chemtrails disagrees with the need for them. But of course most silly conspiracies rely on this nonsense that no one disagrees or is willing to gossip.

The argument might be offered that politicians, military officers, pilots and even radar operators would happily keep what they were doing secret if the reason for the chemtrails was crucial and vitally important to the future of humanity. But if thousands of people can be easily convinced that chemtrails are necessary, then obviously the same argument and reasoning would work on the general public and everyone would happily support the need for chemtrails. There would be no need for secrecy, everyone would come on board.

Of course our politicians and neighbours may not be creating the chemtrails, some believe it is aliens. Of course if this were true then chemtrail proponents need to explain why the governments and military of every country that these aliens are spraying take no notice of these strange planes crisscrossing their country spraying unknown chemicals. We know that no one, aliens or otherwise, could create chemtrails without the military or civilian organisations noticing and investigating. Some might then insist that the aliens are working with the knowledge of the government and military, but this again just brings thousands of humans into the loop and the need to explain why none have spoken out about the aliens and their mission. Another flaw is that aliens are normally accused of wishing to eliminate humans with their chemtrails, so why would thousands of humans willingly go along with a plan for their own extermination? This scenario would make it even more likely that someone would squeal and warn the rest of us. But no one has. Also we are talking highly advanced aliens here. We know they are technologically far in advance of us since they have managed to travel to Earth. That these advanced aliens could think of nothing more effective than slowing flying over us in man-made planes spraying us with strange chemicals is unbelievable. Why do they park up their sophisticated flying saucers and use our old planes? Even we mere humans have biological and chemical weapons that could very quickly and very efficiently wipe out every human on the planet. Surely the aliens have far more impressive weapons and/or could greatly improve on our biological and chemical weapons and release those? But look around you, whatever they're doing, it's not working. The fact that we're still here debunking chemtrails convincingly argues that advanced aliens are not attacking us.

This argument against aliens also shines a similar light on the problem with chemtrails if our governments and military are the ones attacking us with chemicals. Whether the chemtrails are for population control, mind control, climate change control or weather control etc — again — they don't seem to be working.

Birthrates are falling in Western countries, because of the availability of contraception and personal choice, but not because of some mysterious unknown cause. There is no indication that population, birthrates or pregnancy rates are being affected by chemicals falling from the sky. Furthermore, if you wanted to control the total population, you would target countries with large increases such as Africa, not countries where population increase was not such a problem.

If these chemtrails are supposedly impacting on our health, in a negative way, then why aren't we getting noticeably sicker? The fact is that in Western countries we're healthier and longer living than we have ever been in history. Certainly we have problems with heart disease, obesity, cancer etc, but this is a clear result of lifestyle choices and longevity, not covert groups poisoning us with imaginary chemtrails. Another problem with chemtrails is that simply everyone gets sprayed! Since chemtrails stay around for some considerable time, those that are doing the spraying are poisoning themselves as well, in addition to their family and friends. If you're making people sterile, brain washing them or killing them outright, why would you do it to yourself as well? Chemtrails are not a once in a lifetime event where people in the know can hide indoors or in some underground shelter until the danger passes. We're being exposed every other day, and in some places every day. Conspiracy theorists suggest you stay indoors when you see a chemtrail forming and stay away from work etc. This is as stupid as Ken Ring, who uses astrology to predict earthquakes, suggesting you tell your boss you're taking the day off and running into the fields on the days that he predicts earthquakes. What employer would happily let you stay away from work most days, simply because you were fearful of a scary cloud-like trail in the sky? Let's remember that Ken Ring with his near continuous warnings would have you hiding nearly every day of every month, and likewise since some areas can see chemtrails most days, you must hide inside most days like a wimpy vampire.

And why, as these chemtrail proponents suggest you do, would you be safe inside you house? The air we breathe gets inside our houses, so why wouldn't the harmful chemicals sprayed into the air also make it inside? Obviously critical thinking is not a strong point of these conspiracy theorists, most of whom seem to be a sandwich short of a packed lunch.

What about the efficiently of the method they are using to affect us with some chemical or biological agent? If you want to secretly and effectively infect the general population, are chemtrails the sensible way to do it? Not at all. For a start, chemtrails are blatantly obvious, so hardly a very secret way of poisoning people. Also chemtrails (actually contrails) are created by jets at around 7,500 to 12,000 metres, and at this height their creators would have no control over how they dispersed, that is, who the chemicals actually fell on. That is why planes that spray crops etc fly very low, just tens of metres, so that the spray actually hits the target and doesn't blow somewhere else or become too diluted before it settles. If you really wanted to spray a specific target, say a city or town, then you would fly very low, or not fly at all, just drive around spraying from tanker trucks disguised as street sweepers. Another method that would be far more efficient would be to place the chemical or biological agent in the food or the water supply. Some chemtrail proponents claim that biological agents such as harmful bacteria are contained in the chemtrails. They fail to realise that many biological agents are quite fragile and are destroyed by sunlight and would be dead before they reached the ground. The fact is that any group with obviously huge resources and knowledge and the desire to poison us would not choose to disperse their chemical or biological agents with chemtrails. Only stupid people would choose that method.

Some paranoid chemtrail proponents have suggested that the chemicals are designed to act as a tracer, as a marker taken up by people so that intelligence agencies can detect where people are gathering in groups. Using their instruments tuned to these specific chemicals they can see where people are without going out and looking. Swinney informs her readers that, 'New World Order researcher, Freeman of The Freeman Perspective, said ... he had identified two main functions for the chemtrail program on the basis of their main ingredients: aluminium and barium ... if you breathe in barium, you'll shine like a beacon on the X-band radar, making it easy for those using this technology to know when people gather'. There is no evidence for Freeman's claims, but even if it were true, how could it be useful? Remember that we're all being sprayed indiscriminately, not just people of interest to the authorities. All they would know is that a hundred people are gathered at a certain place, not who they were or what they were doing. Is it a church meeting, a sports event, a council meeting or a terrorist convention? To claim that we are all being marked with the same chemical or mark and that this can be of any use to the authorities is just evidence that these idiots are incapable of thinking their ideas through. They're just not that bright.

Freeman, our 'New World Order researcher', 'also contends chemtrails serve other functions, and suggests that ... "They can bring on the end of the world, and make it appear so. They can cause earthquakes, floods and all of these things"'. One moment he's arguing that the authorities are worried that there are very dangerous people out there that we all need to be protected from, and thus they need to tracked, and the next moment he's arguing that these same authorities are the ones we truly need to fear.

If the chemtrails are for some form of mind control, again there is no evidence that the population in areas that experience large numbers of 'chemtrails' have suddenly begun to exhibit stupid behaviour or turn into zombies. Of course every area does have stupid and/or gullible people — such as those that believe in chemtrails — but they were already stupid and gullible before the planes flew overhead. If there is a believable conspiracy to dumb down society, it's called TV, not chemtrails. Seriously though, most if not all countries want their populace to be intelligent, knowledgable and sophisticated, a superiority that would give them an advantage in competition with other countries, so it seems silly to deliberately make your own citizens less intelligent when compared to others. Wouldn't you just spray foreign countries? Even if all countries were dumbing down their citizens, wouldn't you suspect that one country might only pretend to spray their country and therefore become the dominant intellectual power in the world? As for a form of mind control that doesn't affect intelligence but allows the authorities to create a compliant population that is law abiding and obedient to whatever the government decrees, again this is obviously not working in any country on the planet. Even if we just look at the USA, there are still plenty of criminals thumbing their noses at the authorities, and there should only be one political party since multiple parties indicate disagreements over policies.

What about controlling or even causing global warming and climate change? If through the use of chemtrails authorities were able to control, limit and even stop climate change, then they would be openly explaining how chemtrails were our salvation from the potential disasters that we thought climate change might inflict on us. Likewise if they had a way of controlling climate change they would not be wasting time and huge resources on finding other ways to combat climate change when they already have the answer. If they are using chemtrails to actually cause climate change disasters, then again why waste time and huge resources trying to find ways of combating themselves? But again, there is no evidence that their chemtrails, even if they existed, could control or cause climate change.

Next we have the claim that chemtrails are created to control the weather and/or create earthquakes. Considering how obviously unpredictable both the weather and earthquakes are (regardless of what deluded NZ astrologer Ken Ring claims), how there seems to be no discernable pattern as to where natural disasters strike, and how everyone including the authorities are normally caught unawares by disastrous weather and earthquakes, one could assume that most people of average intelligence would easily realise that no unknown groups are controlling the weather or earthquakes. But no, self-deluded and paranoid people among us are convinced that powerful groups are the cause of nasty weather and deadly quakes.

As we've already mentioned, some proponents believe chemtrails are designed to wipe out not just humanity, but all life completely. Swinney reports that 'According to American journalist and filmmaker, Michael J. Murphy, the chemtrail program could be an attempt to kill off anything that is natural and organic'. She supports this view by telling readers that 'Whistleblower, Dr Bill Deagle, a medical doctor who worked for the New World Order ... refers to geoengineering as, "Aerosol Armageddon." He said ... that the aerosolation of the earth is to geoengineer the climate so it can't support life. "They have turned the atmosphere into a plasma, so they can pump and drive frequencies that can affect life forms, thought patterns, biological systems on the ground level and even use it as a weapon to kill people, [and] change people's ability to function. This is very nasty and people need to understand that the atmosphere of the earth has been turned into a weapon against the planet," he said'.

Annoyingly neither Swinney, Murphy nor Deagle reveal who 'they' are, who the meanie is that is out to destroy all life on Earth. But, surprise, surprise, there are problems with their silly claims. To us, the only group that might deliberately seek 'to geoengineer the climate so it can't support life' would be aliens for whom our present atmosphere is toxic to their alien metabolism. Modifying the environment of a planet to make it suitable for a new form of life is known as terraforming, and scientists are seriously considering whether it might be possible to terraform the likes of Mars, and make it suitable for humans. But the above talk of terraforming Earth with chemtrails make no mention of aliens, the implication being that it's humans at work. But how could any group of evil humans be so stupid as to make the planet unlivable and not realise that it's now off limits for them too? They've signed their own death warrant, brought about their own extinction. And they don't just have a problem with other humans, bent on their destruction, they're killing off all life, from cute little kittens and butterflies to dolphins and even grass. We're told that they're going to 'geoengineer the climate so it can't support life' and 'kill off anything that is natural and organic', so that means all life. no exceptions. So should we be worried, has some righteous group decided that for the good of the universe all life on Earth must be extinguished? Nah, we don't think so. For a start, we're told that whistleblower Dr Deagle had 'worked for the New World Order', but there is no such organisation, and so you can only get fantasy information from fantasy organisations. Deagle assures us that, 'They have turned the atmosphere into a plasma', so straight away we know he's lying, and most likely has no idea what he's talking about. His claim is pure pseudoscience.

Plasma is a real thing, but if the atmosphere had already been turned into a plasma, as he insists it has, then none of us would now be alive to talk about. Distinct from solids, liquids and gases, plasma is the most common form of matter in the universe, it's what stars are made of. But it's very rare on Earth, it's found naturally in lightning bolts, but not in your body. Plasma is an electrically charged gas where extreme conditions have ripped the electrons from atoms and has kept them from reforming and neutralising the gas. As we've said, lightning bolts are a form of plasma, and they can have a temperature hotter than the surface of the sun. Plasma, because of the conditions required to keep it a plasma and keep its electrons free, is not something we would what to have in our bodies or our atmosphere. But to stay alive we all need some gas from the atmosphere, for example, humans need oxygen and plants need carbon dioxide. Convert those gases into plasma with chemtrails, making it unavailable for us, and life would certainly be extinguished. But here's the thing, clearly we are all still here, breathing comfortably, so Deagle is talking bullshit when he assures his fellow chemtrail believers that, 'They have turned the atmosphere into a plasma'.

Here's another major problem we have with the evil chemtrail conspiracy theory. Why would the evil, murderous people (or aliens) that are out to harm, if not kill, millions of people with their chemtrails, and desperate to keep their plot secret, why would these same cold-hearted killers hesitate killing the odd chemtrail conspiracy theorist who is revealing their evil machinations to the world? Why don't they care that whistleblowers are posting their secrets on websites and forums, revealing their evil plot? We've all heard about the witness that was going to testify against some Mob boss that mysteriously turns up dead the day before the trial, or the political opponents that speak out against some dictator that likewise die mysterious deaths, so why are the creators of chemtrails that are apparently harming us on a monumental scale, and who are desperate that their work remain secret, why are they happy to let tattletales on these chemtrail forums tell the world? This is a problem that chemtrail believers fail to address, why the chemtrail killers are too afraid to even send them a threatening email. The people employed to spread these chemtrails no doubt have to sign very clear non-disclosure agreements that threaten real and very serious punishment if they are contravened. These corporations/governments/aliens or whoever, will obviously see complete secrecy as paramount for success of their plan, and would logically go to great lengths, legal or otherwise, to maintain that secrecy. What's a few more deaths when you're killing millions? So why don't they care when an outsider reveals their secrets? Are we really to believe that they say, 'Well, they don't work for us so we can't do anything'. Why are these killers afraid of chemtrail believers, why don't they try and silence them? Why aren't there chemtrails over their houses 24/7?

And since chemtrail proponents clearly believe they have experienced many of these chemtrails, why are they still alive or still in possession of a rudimentary intellect sufficient to surf the Internet and challenge those of us that don't see strange clouds as evil? It seems that most everyone will die of natural causes long before the chemtrail toxin kicks in. It must be one of the most pathetic attempts at genocide ever! More people die each year slipping in the shower. So there's no need to worry and no need to panic. As we've said, those wispy trails in the sky, they're just vapor trails. Rather than hiding under the bed when you see one, why not follow this couple's example and simply enjoy the view. They seem pretty relaxed.

Some insight from the conspiracy's grassroots

In her article Swinney also introduces and refers us to another NZ chemtrail proponent by the name of 'Rose of Kaikoura', who writes, '[W]e got shaken out of bed this morning... The HAARP quakes are at a depth of — 10km and 33 kms...'

It makes one wonder how Rose of Kaikoura gained the expertise to tell the difference between a natural earthquake and an artificial one? Did they drop leaflets: 'Made in the USA'? Has she got a contact deep within the US military or the CIA? Or has she simply stopped taking her medication? We don't know the answer since unfortunately Rose of Kaikoura's website forums are not open to the public, which rather defeats their professed desire to make their claims widely known, don't you think?

But it's more than just Rose of Kaikoura that help us understand about chemtrails, and reading the comments from supporters following Swinney's post are probably the most revealing insight into their paranoia and ignorance.

Of course some people may wonder if we're blindly suggesting that all these believers in chemtrails must be either stupid or raving lunatics. And no, we're not going to tell you that, we'll let you read some of the reasons that these people choose to believe in chemtrails and you can decide for yourself how informed they are and how strong their grasp on reality is. As you read them, ask yourself this, would you be happy for people with these views to be teaching your kids at school or university? Depressingly, in our view, nearly all of the comments are from Kiwis, showing that the chemtrail conspiracy has found many gullible people in NZ. So let's look at some of the comments supporting the contention that chemtrails and/or HAARP are weapons being used against us, and first up, a comment from Swinney herself:

'Clare Swinney says:
I suggest you have a look at the evidence and look into the technology that can be used to induce earthquakes. From Uncensored.co.nz...
...there is considerable evidence to suggest that the Christchurch earthquake is very suspicious... Firstly, are man made earthquakes possible? The answer is absolutely yes... we will look at the scientific evidence and circumstantial evidence that casts some highly significant suspicions around the Christchurch earthquake:
What is HAARP?... Could these pulses potentially be used to create earthquakes? Yes... For HAARP pulses to be more effectively transmitted through the atmosphere, it helps greatly to have something in the atmosphere to assist this... This process of 'seeding the atmosphere' with large amounts of fine particle aluminium has been seen in huge abundance across the South Island over the past few months... There is much evidence and discussion to strongly indicate that at least several nations are already actively using this type of technology for a variety of potential purposes based around substantial manipulation of the environment.

Coinciding with the time period of increased HAARP activity, there was a mass stranding of dolphins... and there was a mass stranding of whales... It is thought that electromagnetic pulses from HAARP can seriously disrupt the navigation systems of dolphins and whales as they are used to receiving EM pulses from below them rather than from above them.

...There is significant evidence that atmospheric conditions in the Christchurch area had been 'primed' for HAARP activity... and that Christchurch seemed to be the focal point of a 'global quake'...'

Swinney, who reminds us that she has a Master of Science degree, repeats the claim 'that electromagnetic pulses from HAARP can seriously disrupt the navigation systems of dolphins and whales', since these mammals are 'used to receiving EM pulses from below them rather than from above them'. Like infamous earthquake predictor Ken Ring who claimed that dolphins beam sonar signals to the Moon, Swinney also demonstrates an ignorance of how the echolocation of dolphins and whales works. Echolocation and sonar uses sound pulses, not electromagnetic pulses. Dolphins are not used to receiving electromagnetic pulses so whatever EM pulses HAARP was emitting would have no effect on them. This is typical pseudoscience, where scientific terms are bandied about to confuse readers and make them think it all makes sense. And often people believe this pseudoscientific nonsense that they present as evidence, as Swinney appears to.

Another example of pseudoscience is from chemtrail supporter and self-claimed investigative journalist Ben Vidgen:

'Mass fire balls — sonic booms — or case of impact-less (sub sonic) meteorites — any "meteorite" with a sonic boom has to be traveling at less than 25,000km and there fore is not a meteorite.'

Next we learn more about chemtrails and HAARP from someone called Peter:

'Could it have been HAARP heating up the ionisphere, for the first strike near Christchurch... There are far too many coincidences to dismiss this, — far, far too many... Chem trails were all over above Christchurch before and even after that huge quake of the 22nd... How most of the population do not question this is beyond me...
The world is in turmoil... Are US and British forces... under command from The New World Order, the Illuminati, the hugely rich Bankers the Rothchilds, and the Rockerfellas?
Do people know that HAARP can be used for very sinister activity like 'mind control'. It uses exactly the same radio frequency the human brain uses, what we term as 'brain waves'... These are very dangerous times. I don't believe in natural anymore, this is not natural, not for such potent shallow quake. It was designed to destroy as much property material and life as possible, and at a prime time of the day. Just like Haiti... Why Christchurch? Several reasons. Bring in US troops, and turn it into a Police State, or even better a US controlled state... When will people wake up to the real truth, that the truth is being hidden from us... Check out 'David Icke' 'Stewart Swerdlow' and 'Jesse Ventura' on youtube. They blow conspiracies wide open. David and Stewart will tell you about the alien Reptilian threat to earth, which is connected to what is happening now.'

Next we have someone calling themselves 'dope dj':

'damn, are people too scared to talk about these freaks now days?
come on people, i need to know if anyone else saw some crazy lights in the sky????
i know someone did !
i feel for all my ever aware brothers n sisters out there,
its scary being in an earthquake, for sure
but how scary is it being in one that u know is an ATTACK, thats a whole nother level!
Fucks sakes man i know that fool hon key and his faggot mates are all feeling like theyre GOD right now !!!!
please, thats enought of that shit thankyou NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT
yes yes jon , your the man, and so on, wow ur soo cool coz ur in that crew ur in! and wow, ur crew is soo cool that you can do that......is that what ya wanted to hear ?
or did you want to hear nothing?
was it meant to be an 8.0?
LOVE TO ALL of US out there
NONE FOR "THEM" and "THEY"'

Here's some more of the silly comments that 'Rose of Kaikoura' makes:

'...You will soon realise that ALL of our weather is geo-engineered.

...people are to freaking scared to open their mouths... The time is now and we need to stand up together and get those psychopaths out of our sky.

When they realised how many were on to it here the game changed... The 'contrailed' instead of obvious chemtrails. The contrails are full of spray too. Don't be mislead by these Government agencies that contrails are normal. THEY ARE NOT and anyone with half a brain can work out the science doesn't work...

Two weeks before the quake our community started experiencing headaches, lower back pain, upper respiratory issues...
We are being EMFd to all hell. Kiwis are way to sheepy to snap out of it. They really cant believe that it would happen here. My heart goes out to them because I remember feeling the same way. Never happen in NZ and chemtrails/HAARP are a myth, our Government are not that corrupt. Well what a fool I feel now.

The NZ CHRISTCHURCH earthquake is definitely a sign from God to the CHURCH OF CHRIST...

...the skies are blanketed in the metal filth again. I have more photos of the disgusting dawn, Pink glowing crap everywhere - which has become quiet 'normal'...
Reminds some of us of the huge 1931 Napier quake when a US Navel ship happened to be sighted off the coast. My deceased Nana was involved in that one. This technology is lethal. We know how long they have been messing with this technology now — frightening stuff...
My brain is addled from chemical assault, EMFs. Can hardly string two thoughts together but we wont let that stop us.'

Likewise we should all, if we can stop laughing, ignore this advice from Kay on combating the effects of chemtrails:

'Rose, try singing to relieve some of the symptoms you are experiencing. Singing creates an internal vibration... It blocked the ELF signals for me and interfered with the communication within the colony... For all of you under Chem trail attack, change to a lavender or lemon grass essential oil soap.'

Then we have Nina Fox assuring us that:

'...[the Sept Christchurch earthquake] is a very curious EQ ~ I have been reading the reports on this one ~ and it has all the markers/signatures of a HAARP engineered quake...

...these entities that are spraying our planet with nasty, toxic chemicals must think they are gods ~ how high and mighty they must feel knowing they have the technology to manipulate the weather on a global scale ... stand up and shout NO MORE! ... we must protect this pearly blue earth with all our might ~ or there will be nothing left for our future generations except total slavery and a robot race.'

Here's another paranoid and fearful moron, Fire Fly, blaming the US and the Illuminati:

'...People absolutely must be aware of this before it's too late! ... if a few shots fired from a HAARP weapon were fired at an area of NZ then it could trigger as large an EQ as they wish to set their weapon at! ... 'they' could cause this and worse I wreckon...
33 miles deep: depth of many of the earthquakes ... 33 is a symbolic and ritualistic number of the Illuminate btw (if that is not saying 'too much'). I think I've said enough for a public forum.'

Next we have Ben T who thinks he's 'Mr Science', and believes he's found a way to identify the aliens and their ships:

'Hmm... have you ever noticed that some stars blink randomly green blue red and stay mostly white. There is not really any pattern to them but primitive physics, its not possible for light to be blueshifted and then redshifted in milliseconds. Its one way or another. What are these? They are prolific they look like they sit in low orbit and they change position in the sky from time too time. Keep an eye out for them. I and a friend saw a ufo the other day, just a really shiny silver object sitting stationary in the sky. Still if people can ignore the fact the government is the most destructive establishment we have, then people can miss ships in the sky.'

'I saw no lights but right after the Quake I was looking out the window towards the West where the quake happened and I did see a satellite cruising over-head if this helps any.'

Next we have Maria who also feels it is her duty to reveal what she knows about the attack on Christchurch:

'I have been very concerned with the latest earthquake event in Christchurch. As a very sensitive and spiritual person I had some very unpleasant and disturbing dreams just before the earthquake happened. I saw what I can describe as a satanic bible and people working on their rituals and I could clearly read the word occult in their book... Only minutes later I woke up by this terrible earthquake!
... It does not feel like a natural event to me and my body on a DNA level, knows that something is very fishy!
I have been aware of HAARP for some time and I am wondering if the energy they are manipulating affects our cells and brains. I have been feeling something very heavy on the air around my head, too.
this morning (8th Sept) we had another big one. They said it was an aftershock... I think it was a new attack and I would welcome your opinions.
I think people in NZ need to wake up and demand a stop to this insane criminal activity... Don't let the satanic, masonic, Zionist serpents to take over your beautiful country!... It was not a coincidence that no matter how hard the reptilian demons tried, they failed to sacrifice even one of you! I am sure that you are protected...'

'I have a feeling that their evil mission has not been acombished yet, especially in the light of no direct fatalities i.e sacrifices to their Occult masters. May the Univeral Divine Forces of Light and Compassion protect and shield this country once again from any further attempts or other evil plans.'

Another poster calling themselves 'ashleypog balm' also believes that chemtrails are attempts to attack us:

'I hav no doubt these eugenic cotrol freaks want mass depoulation... May the Lord Jesus rebuke them.'

In the next comment Peter attempts to educate us about HAARP:

'Just some facts about HAARP... It is a US military, and I believe also The New World Order who command this 'Research Project'... The most dangerous things they can achieve with this machine is alter the jetsteam above, so the weather can be easily manipulated, storms like hurricanes can be moved anywhere, create yes, earthquakes, and even be used for mind control. These are cold facts.'

'...it is *clear* the quake has a nuke seismic signature... Like the Bali bomb, perhaps this was a micronuke set off underground?'

Next we have another paranoid individual, Chris Wolf, agreeing that dark forces are conspiring to subject us to slavery or worse and that we need to rebel and fight back:

'This rage from North is intolerable, and i feel that the Southern Hemisphere's people must rise against this... people all over the world are starting to take note.
They are moving quicker, their World Order by stealth is taking frame. We will not just stand and stare... we will rise !!!'

Next Peter gives us information on those he believes are out to get us:

'The Illuminati do not care how many people they kill. They do not care how much property they destroy. They do not care which country they attack. The US is not immune. They want, every drop of water, every blade of grass, every drop of wealth, every ounce of power, not to mention the culling of the human race. Christchurch will fight on. The fight is just beginning. I am not alone. There are ones that know what I mean and are with me. Ignorance will kill a lot of people.'

'...a certain group of beings... state that they are chosen to "Conquer" the Universe!!!... its agenda is death to all humans... the Galactic war that has meant destruction of Mars, Venus and some on Earth, genetic manipulations of human DNA with much shortened life-span and lower IQ as a result...'

Then Peter comes in with this crucial piece of information, and pete thornton concurs:

'Remember Friday, the day of the Japanese quake on the 11th of March is the day of Venus in the occult world, for she is the Goddess of Chaos and Death.'

'good on you peter for talking about the occultic dates, you are on to it, so much of society now is unaware of all the occultic activity, might i suggest a look at a site called cuttingedgeministries, indepth information about the arrival of antichrist through the illuminatis deception, and how all who are into new age are actually supporting the nwo agenda of ushering in the total enslavement of society under antichrist. Peter you also state that ignorance will kill alot of people, yep that be true, as the Bible states,,,,,My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Bless you bro.'

'Today, Sunday in Nelson NZ was a busy day in the sky, from morning til evening, many trails could be seen especially from Tahuna Beach. The sky got milky, actually it was supposed to be a blue sky day. Is there a connection to NZ signing the Kyoto protocol (Co2 Tax)? Who pays for these signs in the sky?'

'Holy macaroni I didn’t know people knew about this years ago when it happened. I only figured it out by all this crazy weird stuff happening in my reality. It was a ritual date and knowledge theyes have built the satanic illuminati temple here 4 end times wHich is now. Please listen as it is nearly end of lucifers year. Things have been ramped up big time. They are going to hit us with martial law so the elite can move here for showdown of the anti Christ. It’s all in the bible about the city it happens. And so many people are being affected here in chch spiritually and it’s only gonna get worse. There are many satanic illuminati aholes in christs church I see them and there businesses here. Please stand up and fight'

Conclusion

OK, so that's a broad overview of the claims behind chemtrails, what they are, why they're being created and who's behind them. So what have we learnt? The reality is that the chemtrail proponents can't agree on who is spraying us, it's simply 'they" are poisoning us and we must stop "them". Likewise they can't agree on why "they" are spraying chemtrails in our skies, is it mind control or death by earthquake or ... what? But none of that matters, since crucially we've found that on examining the claims of the chemtrail proponents, there is no evidence that chemtrails even exist, or that a conspiracy exists to keep them secret. It's all nonsense. You now know enough to confidently giggle when someone suggests that we should be worried about them.

But we need to realise that while we all live in the 21st century, many people still think like medieval peasants and gravitate towards ignorance and superstition, preferring simple answers over science and reason.

Yes, there have been occasions when authorities and governments and people we thought we could trust have lied to us and have even harmed us in some covert experiment or other. There have been real conspiracies, and we must always be skeptical of claims from everybody, not just authorities. But if there is no good evidence of a conspiracy or covert experiment, no good reason to believe we are lab rats, then the rational stance is to ignore baseless claims that we are being manipulated.

And the fact is that there is no evidence for chemtrail claims or an evil conspiracy. Yes, there are plenty of websites claiming that chemtrails are real, just as others claim alien abductions are real, that miracles by some long dead virgin called Mary are real, that homoeopathic cures are real, that silly gods are real, and — just to be different — that the moon landing wasn't real. But these websites and their photos of weird looking clouds are just the product of a real paranoia that drives them to believe that someone is deliberately attacking them, poisoning them, making them ill and perhaps even trying to kill them. Sighting a contrail they run screaming under their bed, and like Noah sending out a dove to see if the floods had receded (another fantasy by the way), they stay there until their cat, the intelligent member of their household, assures them that it's safe and coaxes them out.

To those of you reading this that still believe in chemtrails and their evil creators, regardless of evidence to the contrary, then perhaps the best we can do for you is to again remind you of the advice that Kay, a fellow believer in chemtrails offered:

'For all of you under Chem trail attack, change to a lavender or lemon grass essential oil soap.'

We'll finish with this photo that we saw on the RationalWiki page on 'Chemtrails':

Authors:   John L. Ateo,    Rachel C.
Copyright © 2011, by the 'SILLY BELIEFS' website. All rights reserved.

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Links to Articles

Chemtrails
The Skeptic's Dictionary

How to Debunk Chemtrails
Contrail Science

Those Mysterious Lines in the Sky
Jay Reynolds

The ‘Chemtrail Conspiracy'
Skeptical Inquirer

Chemtrails
Dave Sorensen, Skeptic Project

Curious Contrails: Death from the Sky?
Skeptical Inquirer

Chemtrails
RationalWiki

Chemtrail conspiracy theory
Wikipedia