Are chemtrails real? Whether they are or not Florida is about to ban them
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will sign a bill banning “geoengineering and weather modification activities.”
- The bill, SB 56, allows residents to report suspected chemtrail activity to authorities, despite the term not appearing in the bill’s text.
- Chemtrails are a conspiracy theory alleging that the government releases chemicals into the atmosphere, a claim debunked by multiple agencies.
Concerned about chemtrails? Soon, you’ll have a way to report the white streaks in the sky to Florida authorities.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signalled that he will sign a new bill passed by the Florida Legislature banning “geoengineering and weather modification activities” such as cloud seeding in the Sunshine State.
“Florida is not a testing ground for geoengineering,” DeSantis posted on X. “We already do not permit this type of activity, but we are going the next step to ensure it does not happen in this state.
“As soon as it reaches my desk, I will be signing the recently passed Senate Bill 56 to prohibit the release of chemicals into our skies to alter the weather or atmosphere. The Free State of Florida means freedom from governments or private actors unilaterally applying chemicals or geoengineering to people or public spaces.”
The bill also requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to create an email and online form for any residents with concerns or to report sightings.
According to an analysis of the bill, no one has applied for weather modification licenses in the state for 10 years.
SB 56 bans chemtrails without saying ‘chemtrails’
The word “chemtrails” — the focus of a long-running conspiracy theory that nefarious people or government agencies are spreading toxic chemicals on an unsuspecting populace through the white trails in the sky left by airplanes — appears nowhere in the bill, but it did come up in multiple discussions of the bill and in social media posts shared by the bill’s sponsor, Miami state Sen. Ileana Garcia.
Tennessee passed a similar law last year, with several legislators referring to fears from the chemtrails conspiracy.
The federal government has been accused of using chemtrails for human population control, weapons testing, mind control, and more. Multiple agencies have stated that the government does not modify the weather and that solar geoengineering is “nonexistent.”
What are chemtrails?
“Chemtrails,” as described by a Harvard University report, is a conspiracy theory buzzword that refers to types of contrails, the line-shaped clouds or “condensation trails” visible behind aircraft engines under certain atmospheric conditions.
Contrails are composed when hot, humid air from the engines condenses into ice crystals in the cold air, the National Weather Service says. While they often fade quickly, especially in dry weather, their appearance and durability can change depending on the conditions the plane flew through, including altitude, temperature, humidity, sunlight, wind speed, etc.
Sometimes, in saturated, high-humidity conditions, some contrails may persist for hours and spread out into cirrus clouds, or last long enough for multiple airplane paths to create a crisscross effect.
This normal event has been singled out by conspiracy theorists as evidence that the government, the military, or climate scientists are deliberately pumping chemicals into the atmosphere for various schemes, up to and including creating hurricanes on command.
In 2024, when Hurricane Milton became the second major hurricane to make landfall in two weeks, conspiracy theorists claimed the Biden administration was controlling the weather to affect the election. Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene helped spread the rumor in an X post that has been seen 44 million times.
“Yes they can control the weather,” she said. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” She posted a follow-up asking if Americans agreed to their weather being modified.
Greene was ridiculed but Rolling Stone reported that meteorologists were getting death threats. The spread of misinformation became so prevalent that both NOAA and FEMA were forced to create fact-checking webpages.
“No one creates or steers hurricanes,” NOAA said, “the technology does not exist.”
Twenty-five years ago, the EPA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a report debunking the chemtrails theory. Other agencies, such as the U.S. Air Force, issued their own fact sheets explaining what contrails were.
Conspiracy theorists have pointed to such reports as more evidence of massive collusion in the scheme.
What is solar geoengineering?
Geoengineering, also called climate engineering or climate intervention, refers to deliberate large-scale interventions intended to counteract human-caused climate change through carbon dioxide removal or by deflecting some portion of the sun’s rays away from Earth.
A NOAA report from last year lists several proposed Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) methods for reducing the amount of solar radiation, including firing small reflective aerosols into the air to increase the reflectivity of the stratosphere or low-lying clouds, thinning cirrus clouds, or even putting large mirrors in space. However, none have progressed past the research stage as scientists study the potential risks and negative consequences.
Where did the chemtrails conspiracy come from?
In 1996, the U.S. Air Force published a report about proposed weather modification in the future. The report itself says it contains “fictional representations of future situations/scenarios,” but it triggered concerns about shadowy evil plans. The USAF later clarified that the paper was created in response to a military directive asking for future scenarios and did not reflect any plans, present or future, to modify the weather.
Since then, any reports of proposed geoengineering projects, rocket engine tests, widespread sickness, or just suspicious cloud formations bring out more accusations of chemtrails and governmental conspiracy.
What does SB 36 do?
SB 36, Weather Modification Activities, repeals nearly a dozen provisions in Florida statutes that allow state-licensed weather modification such as cloud-seeding to cause rain, block any future innovations, and prohibit the injection, release or dispersion of any substance or apparatus into the atmosphere within Florida’s borders “for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, the weather, or the intensity of sunlight.”
It also:
- Changes the second-degree misdemeanor for anyone attempting weather modification without a state license to a third-degree felony for any public or private corporation attempting it at all, and adds a fine up to $100,000 per violation
- Makes it a third-degree felony for any aircraft operator or controller involved with a fine up to $5,000 and up to 5 years in prison
- Bans all study, research or experimentation in the field of weather modification
- Requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to set up an email address and online form for Florida residents to report “observed violations”
- Authorizes the DEP to investigate reports of violations and refer them to the Department of Health or the Division of Emergency Management
- Requires all operators of publicly owned airports to report monthly to the Department of Transportation (DOT) the presence of any aircraft equipped with any part, component, or device that could be used for these purposes
Can humans manipulate the weather?
On a small scale, yes.
The idea of cloud seeding, where substances such as silver iodide or dry ice are released into the atmosphere to increase rain or snow, mitigate hail or disperse fog, has been around since 1891 and was first put into practice in 1946. But nothing on a large scale has been found to work.
“No technology exists that can create, destroy, modify, strengthen or steer hurricanes in any way, shape or form,” NOAA said.
There was an attempt, starting in the 1960s, by the U.S. military to modify hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, called Project STORMFURY. The project was unsuccessful and was discontinued, NOAA said.
In February, researchers proposed dehydrating the atmosphere by seeding the upper atmosphere with small particles known as ice nuclei to slow climate change. But other scientists have been skeptical, and one of the researchers admitted, “We don’t have a plan or the technology to do this.”
