Tennessee “Chemtrail” Bill Prohibits A Phenomenon Which Doesn’t Exist

Tennessee has passed a bill banning the release of chemicals into the atmosphere, in a move thought by critics to be motivated by debunked “chemtrail” conspiracy theories.

The bill, which passed Monday, seeks to prohibit “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”.

While the Republican bill refers to attempts to geoengineer the planet’s climate, witnesses at the debate around the bill cited conspiracy theories and spoke of secret government programs, according to the conservation director of the Tennessee branch of environmental organization the Sierra Club.

“As a serious environmental organization, if what was in the bill was actually going on we would be calling for a stop to it,” Scott Banbury told the BBC. “It’s not happening.”

The thoroughly debunked “chemtrail” conspiracy theory suggests that the trails left by airplanes are chemicals deliberately sprayed into the atmosphere by a government agency of your choosing. Proponents claim they are part of military tests, dispense chemicals that make you sick in order to bump the profits for drug companies, or are used for mind control purposes. Some even go so far as to suggest chemtrails could wipe out humanity by causing “biblical flooding”. Advocates include Alex Jones and Chuck Norris, who, let’s say, are not considered to be among the world’s top scientists. 

In boring reality, plane engines get hot. Much hotter than the atmosphere outside the plane, in fact. So when the exhaust leaves the plane, the water vapor freezes mid-air, causing a trail of ice behind the plane known as contrails.

While the bill talks of geoengineering attempts, those are not taking place in the state either. If they were, “it would look like what happened after a big volcanic eruption – the sky would be a little bit less blue”, Alan Robock, a professor of climate science at Rutgers University, told The Guardian. 

The idea of geoengineering our climate and cooling the Earth – usually by reflecting more sunlight back at space – is a real one, but is highly controversial even amongst scientists. The University of Washington recently ran the first stage of a project aimed at brightening clouds by using sea salt aerosols, increasing the amount of light reflected away from the Earth. If successful, the next stage would be to test the idea by aiming the aerosols upwards, to see if it was capable of changing the composition of the clouds above. 

This was the first outdoor US test of an idea to brighten clouds, and other ideas are also in similarly early stages. They are also highly controversial, with climate scientists warning attempts to geoengineer our climate could lead to disaster. As a result, when tests do take place, you will hear about it in the media, not by looking at the contrails of airplanes.

The bill will now go to be signed by Tennessee’s governor, Republican Bill Lee, before coming into force. Though it’s not clear what it is stopping, nor how it would be policed.

“It’s not going to make any difference one way or the other – how could they even enforce it?” Robock added. “What if somebody did a chemtrail in Kentucky and it drifted over Tennessee? What would they do?”