Tennessee Senate passes bill based on ‘chemtrails’ conspiracy theory: What to know

The Tennessee Senate has passed a bill targeting “chemtrails.”

SB 2691/HB 2063, sponsored by Rep. Monty Fritts, R-Kingston, and Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, passed in the Senate on Monday. The bill has yet to advance in the House.

The bill claims it is “documented the federal government or other entities acting on the federal government’s behalf or at the federal government’s request may conduct geoengineering experiments by intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere, and those activities may occur within the State of Tennessee,” according to the bill.

The legislation would ban the practice in Tennessee.

“The intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight is prohibited,” the bill reads.

The bill is scheduled to go to the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday.

Here is what to know about chemtrails.

What are chemtrails? What is the conspiracy theory behind them?

The chemtrail theory is the belief that the government is secretly adding toxic chemicals to the atmosphere from aircrafts, similar to contrails. According to a research group at Harvard University which focuses on climate science and technology, the reasoning behind the theory involves sterilization, reduction of life expectancy, mind control, and weather control.

The research group has debunked the theory, saying that there is no credible evidence for the existence of chemtrails. 

“Study of solar geoengineering is in the very early stages and the topic is (rightly) a very controversial area of climate policy because if it ever were tested at large scales or implemented it could involve physical risks and would raise a range of serious socio-political and ethical issues,” said the Harvard research group. “We are confident that there is no currently active program to actually test or implement albedo modification outdoors.”

According to Harvard, if there truly was a large-scale program which involved aircrafts introducing hazardous chemicals, there would first need to be an operating system to manufacture, load and disperse materials. Additionally, if such a system existed, it would require the work and cooperation of thousands of people which would make it difficult to maintain a secret.

It would be fairly simple for a single individual to reveal the existence of the program using leaked documents, photographs or hardware, said Harvard.

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The claim that there is a large-scale secret program to spray materials from aircraft is extraordinary. Yet all the evidence we have seen to date has been very weak,” said Harvard. “The most common claim is simply that aircraft contrails look ‘different’, without any comparative analysis.”

“This [is] as convincing as saying that alien beings walk among in disguise as people because some people act very strangely.,” they added.

Are contrails used for geoengineering?

No.

Contrails, the white streaks of water vapor left in the sky from planes, are not used for geoengineering. The contrails are simply water clouds resulting from jet exhaust, said Alan Robock, a climate science professor at Rutgers University who studies geoengineering, in a statement to USA TODAY. 

Furthermore, contrails would be a poor choice for climate intervention, said Dave Fahey, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s chemical sciences laboratory.

“Contrails are short-lived cloud effects – less than a few days,” Fahey told USA TODAY. “They would be a very inefficient method.”

Has solar geoengineering ever been implemented? 

No.

Solar geoengineering is an area of study meant to combat rising global temperatures by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth.

“The idea is that dispersing aerosols – tiny particles – at high altitude would reflect a small fraction of incoming sunlight back to space and cool the planet, offsetting some global warming,” Joshua Horton, a geoengineering research director at Harvard University, said in an email to USA TODAY.

This has not yet been developed, though, Horton and Robock said.

“The technology does not exist,” Robock said. “There is no mechanism to get sulfur gases into the stratosphere. People have created designs for such airplanes, but they have not been built.”

Robock said solar geoengineering would most likely cause bright yellow and red sunrises and sunsets, not white streaks.

“It would not look at all like contrails,” he said.

USA TODAY contributed to this report.

Fact check:No, airplane contrails are not being used to combat climate change

Diana Leyva covers trending news and service for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com or follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter at @_leyvadiana