Ask Will: Contrail column spurs conspiracy questions

The following is feedback a reader sent in response to my April 24 column about jet contrails. In it, I referenced some theories about contrails that posited they are actuallypart of a secret conspiracy to put chemicals in the sky. I dismissed that as “Internet clickbait.” This reader disagrees. — Will

Yes, these chemtrails are real. Your description on the contrail was well done, however, only 5 percent of the population even knows what a chemtrail is.

I urge everyone out there to research these topics on the Internet, educate yourself and you will realize it’s not just a conspiracy and “fear-mongering Internet clickbait.” The main reason I can figure out why chemtrails are being dispersed into the sky is to slow global warming. As early as 1996 there has been a plan to chemtrail our skies and it is being done. The fact of the matter is that many scientists realize how fast the climate change warming is taking place. They know it’s too late and that so-called civilized societies are not doing what needs to be done so there you have it. Really start looking at the Coachella sky and you will see how grid forms are laid out and the chemtrail lines stay for the longest time. Various forms of metals are being sprayed with barium at the top of the list.

If I told you that because of all the smog and pollutants in the air all life as we know it will be gone in 75 years and it is true, many would flip out. If I told you the only hope left is the spraying of chemtrails in the sky, but we have to use you and the planet as guinea pigs to find out if it will work … what would you do? Regardless … we should still be told what they are really doing to the skies.

—Arthur T. Volpe, Palm Desert

Thank you for your response, I think it merits a reply. I agree that it’s important to know what’s in the air we breathe. You offer a possible motive for chemtrail practices that on the surface could serve to strengthen the case, but may just cloud the issue more.

But first a little something about “clickbait.” For those unfamiliar with social media, I present an example of something I saw on Facebook not long after my previous column on contrails. WorldTruth.TV invites readers to see “the first empirical evidence” that airplanes are releasing toxins into the atmosphere, and that photo seems to clearly show something bad happening, with brown vapor stark against a blue sky. Click on the link, however, and the “conclusive” video shows a different airplane landing on a foggy night.

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This kind of bait-and-switch is rampant on the Internet, because once you’ve clicked on a link you become another number attractive to advertisers, whether you really did find “shocking information that will change everything” or just feel kind of annoyed and ripped off. Which is fine if you’re killing time, but not so much if the topic is about killing people.

If the chemtrail conspiracy is true, then it is a crime against humanity of horrific proportions. But sloppy evidence has, historically, generally benefitted criminals more than prosecutors. Serving up deceptive imagery in support of a serious accusation is, at best, trivializing the issue, and gives the impression the message is not so much “this horrible thing is happening” but “look at how clever I am to have figured this out.”

I’m not saying that’s your position, but a serious approach would seem to require recognizing that clickbait behavior is out there and causes more damage than awareness. Nor am I dismissing the idea of chemtrails out of hand; believe me, next time I book a flight somewhere I’ll do my best to secure a window seat with a wing view so I can see for myself. I would expect there to be more evidence of people already doing the same, but it’s elusive.

As to the motive that chemtrails are some attempt to combat climate change with collateral damage, it does have a certain “we had to burn down the village to save it” air of plausibility, as your example of nuclear testing supports. It plays into widespread skepticism about global warming by associating it with another hidden threat to our wellbeing. To me, it would be almost soothing to think a group of scientists are taking it upon themselves to try to preserve life on Earth when no one else will. No one else, except for the pilots, ground crews, chemical suppliers, etc. who would have to be in on the conspiracy to keep it quiet.

However, in classic conspiracy theory fashion, it can be turned right around: Massive polluters are throwing up a smoke screen with the chemtrail conspiracy theory to take the heat off themselves. A YouTube video makes the case that the environmental havoc attributed to chemtrails is more likely to be the product of coal-fired power plants. But that just leads further down the rabbit hole of “that’s what they WANT you to think.” Conspiracy theories propagate by catering to our existing suspicions and prejudices.

Take the “busted pilot” video pictured with this column. Trace it back to its source and you wind up at The Turner Radio Network, which informs you its founder, Hal Turner, “is barred by court order from owning or contributing to the content of web sites until October 2015.” You can look at that and decide this Hal Turner fellow is a crook, or you can look at it and decide that Turner is a truthteller being silenced by the forces behind the conspiracy. Or you could dig a little deeper and find reports that Turner is a former FBI informant who was prosecuted for threatening the lives of federal judges. ()

Does this prove that chemtrails are a hoax? By no means. It remains possible that Hal Turner is being used to discredit chemtrail believers by association (there’s that rabbit hole again). There are serious people genuinely concerned that the chemtrail conspiracy is true, and there’s a lot of evidence that chemicals in our air are doing catastrophic damage to ecosystems, which include farms as well as forests. If you’ve found evidence that chemicals sprayed by jet airplanes are more responsible for toxins in our air than burning fossil fuels, I’m genuinely interested in seeing it. But thus far I’m unconvinced.

“Jeopardy” champ and copy editor Will Toren is The Desert Sun’s resident know-it-all. Follow Will on Twitter @WillToren and send him your questions at will.toren@desertsun.com