It's a well-known tactic of media manipulators to try to avoid scrutiny by dumping important news stories on Fridays, when nobody is paying attention, in the hopes that, after the weekend, when the news cycle picks up again, nobody will remember. Apparently, this is exactly what researchers at the University of California, Irvine hoped would happen when they announced last Friday that they had officially “debunked” the so-called “chemtrails conspiracy theory.”
In an Aug. 12 press release titled “Surveyed Scientists Debunk Chemtrails Conspiracy Theory,” UC Irvine announced that “the world's leading atmospheric scientists overwhelmingly deny the existence of a secret, elite-driven plot to release harmful chemicals into the air from high-flying aircraft.” In researching that conclusion, the university's own researchers, along with others working with a murky institution calling itself the “Carnegie Institution for Science” had “asked 77 atmospheric chemists and geochemists if they had come across evidence of such a large-scale spraying program, and 76 responded that they had not.”
And what did the press release say about the one researcher who spoke the truth about chemtrails, you might ask? Nary a word. Instead, the release focused only on the 98.7 percent of scientists who claim that the phenomenon is simply caused by water condensation at high altitude.
“Heat from aircraft engines produces condensation trails that can be clearly seen from the ground,” the university claims. “A small but vocal segment of the population firmly believes that these are composed not merely of condensed water vapor but of chemicals and elements such as strontium, barium and aluminum that powerful, high-level entities have been intentionally and covertly releasing into the atmosphere for decades.”
The university even goes so far as to blame the phenomena on global warming, a bizarre claim given the fact, as all veteran skywatchers know, global warming itself is being caused by chemtrails. “Some of the surveyed specialists suggested that global warming may itself be a cause of longer-lasting condensation trails from aircraft engines,” the release states. “Another contributor, outlined in the study, is the steady growth of air travel in recent decades, which leads airplanes to fly higher, where contrails are more likely to form and remain in the sky.”
The UC Irvine report blithely blames all the eyewitness reports of top-secret government aerial spraying on unspecified, internet-fueled hysteria. (The Weekly proudly contributed to this back in 2008). “The chemtrails conspiracy theory maps pretty closely to the origin and growth of the internet, where you can still find a number of websites that promote this particular brand of pseudoscience,” states Steven Davis, a UCI associate professor of Earth system science. “Our survey found little agreement in the scientific community with claims that the government, the military, airlines and others are colluding in a widespread, nefarious program to poison the planet from the skies.”
There you have it, folks: Some people calling themselves “scientists” claim that other “scientists” say that chemtrails “aren't real.” Will the real truth ever be revealed? Keep watching the skies!
