Chemtrails

 Today conspiracy theorists are so often derided but eventually proved correct. There is one theory to which I take exception, that is the view that our governments are trying to kill off populations with the use of chemical agents in jet exhausts. It is a sad indictment on society that many people do seriously believe that governments are trying to kill them off, but the actions of many politicians could be construed as attacks on health, wealth, life, and liberty. It is more likely that politicians just do not care, than that they are deliberately planning to kill citizens.

Some of the idea that there are chemicals being sprayed to kill people may be based on actual spraying that is done to spray herbicides or even insecticides in agricultural areas. In the early 1990’s herbicide was sprayed on the pine plantations near Ballarat, Victoria in Australia to eliminate weeds. Unfortunately, on the day of the spraying the wind was in the wrong direction and the spray settled over the town. We were living there at the time, and I was forced to go to the emergency department with severe asthma that night. Many other people also suffered difficulties, some more severe than others. This was not an intentional act, but an accident caused by the carelessness of those entrusted with the spraying.

Seeding of clouds to generate rainfall has also been a common practice and footage from inside aircraft pumping chemicals or dry ice onto the clouds is also used by conspiracy theorists to convince people of their claims. The vapour trails of normal commercial aircraft do not have added chemicals or harmful additives, commercial fuels are predominantly hydrocarbons Kerosene is most commonly used but methane, propane and other hydrocarbons can be used. Biofuels such as alcohol are also suitable as jet fuel.

The formula for Kerosene is C₁₅H₃₂ and when it is oxidised, burned as fuel, each carbon molecule attaches to two oxygen molecules to create CO₂, the hydrogen atoms will also attach to oxygen molecules, but two hydrogen molecules will attach to each oxygen molecule to create a molecule of H₂O. The exhaust of these aircraft are simply water vapour and carbon dioxide, the trail that appears behind the aircraft is simply the water vapour condensing in the cold air at high altitude. Both water vapour and carbon dioxide are greenhouse gasses but the CO₂ sinks to the ground fairly quickly as it is heavier than the nitrogen and oxygen that make up the bulk of the atmosphere. The Earth’s CO₂ is most concentrated at low levels either at or below sea level, which is why no trees grow on high mountains, there is insufficient CO₂ to support them. Only mosses and lichen, which grow close to the ground, can survive the lack of atmospheric carbon at high altitudes.

Water vapour, which is two thirds hydrogen (the lightest of all gasses, fifteen times lighter than air), can remain high in the atmosphere for long periods. Water vapour is also the greenhouse gas that has the greatest effect on temperature, frosts will not form when there is cloud cover but form even in warmer areas under clear skies even in deserts nights can be freezing. Aircraft are great contributors to the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, studies done after the introduction of the passenger jet claimed that atmospheric water vapour over the Atlantic increased fifteen percent in the first ten years of regular services. These services began in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, so plenty of time has elapsed to allow water vapour levels to further increase.

Water vapour (clouds) have one further property, apart from acting as a blanket to prevent heat escaping form the Earth, they reflect sunlight and prevent heat from reaching the Earth. The clouds can then cool, and the molecules of water vapour begin to form ice crystals and as they do they begin to fall toward the ground, picking up further molecules as they fall. If the air is cold enough, they begin to form into snowflakes but if it is not that cold, they may form layers of ice and become hail, or melt into droplets and fall as rain. Apart from warming the world water vapour can become a regulator of temperature, which is why the tropics are not only the warmest places on Earth but also the wettest.

Sulphur gasses from pollution or from volcanic activity can also combine with water vapour to form sulphuric acid, or acid rain. This is not only a problem that causes possible damage to living things but while in the air sulphuric acid reflects more sunlight than water vapour alone, leading to far colder conditions.

The summation of all this is that we have little to worry about from so called chemtrails, but pollution and volcanoes may yet kill us all. The pressure for us all to switch to electric vehicles is a commercial one and has no effect on the planet. A recent calculation of the carbon footprint of the most recent climate conference concluded that all those private jets and hotels and other transport was equal to driving three hundred and seventy thousand cars for a week.

If we truly want to reach net zero carbon emissions, we should stop importing goods from countries where labour is cheap. Five of the huge container ships used to transport raw materials one way and bring back manufactured goods will burn as much fuel as all the cars on Earth. There are thousands of these huge ships plying the oceans every day. Making goods locally would reduce all that carbon. The downside of that will be that thousands of people in poorer countries will become unemployed and possibly starve, but we would achieve net zero carbon – if that is our sole aim.

 

 

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