What Geoengineering Monitor isn’t: Chemtrails and climate denialism

A conspiracy theory claims that long-lasting vapour trails left by aircraft, often referred to as “chemtrails,” contain harmful substances intentionally released into the atmosphere for various and often undisclosed purposes. This unfounded theory mistakenly associates such vapour exhaust trails with weather modification and solar geoengineering. Our work at Geoengineering Monitor has no connection to such claims, nor does it endorse or lend any credibility to these unfounded theories.

An unfortunate side effect of the growth of online “chemtrails” references is that the term geoengineering is wrongly used to refer to conspiracy theories involving large-scale, covert weather modification. This means that some of the information available online (particularly on social media) referring to geoengineering is based on extensive speculation rather than research and facts.

While the chemtrails discourse could reflect a legitimate distrust of certain government actors and transparency in decision-making—and indeed real weather modification projects can pose risks to communities and the environment—the actual effect of it is to promote opposition to geoengineering based on unfounded assertions. This discredits the serious work against a range of real geoengineering projects that is being carried out by communities and organisations in many regions of the world.

On top of this, much of the online information relating to chemtrails and weather modification conspiracy theories can be traced back to deeply discriminatory and racist political agendas that neither seek nor are compatible with climate justice. These conspiracy theories often go hand-in-hand with climate denialism, which further undermines the understanding of the climate crisis and the real solutions to it. 

Although Geoengineering Monitor’s research and publications have never provided evidence in support of chemtrails or weather modification conspiracy theories, our resources are sometimes being cited as evidence that these theories must be true. We therefore strongly encourage all of our readers to look closely at our publications before making any links to such conspiracy theories and their associated politics. 

There is plenty to be alarmed about in the verified facts and research about geoengineering; we should all start there.