We just realized that we had a half-finished report on the main page for about two weeks.  No emails telling us about it, though.  Our readership must be lax.  Or nonexistent...that's always a possibility.

The subject of this entry is something that is not often covered by skeptical groups, possibly because of the very odd nature of what seems to be going on: chemtrails.

In general, chemtrails are defined by the paranormalites thusly, quoted from Toni Taylor, from Jeff Rense:

Chemtrails (CTs) look like contrails initially, but are much thicker, extend across the sky and are often laid down in varying patterns of Xs, tick-tack-toe grids, cross-hatched and parallel lines. Instead of quickly dissipating, chemtrails expand and drip feathers and mare s tails. In 30 minutes or less, they open into wispy formations which join together, forming a thin white veil or a "fake cirrus-type cloud" that persists for hours.

 

There is a wealth of photographic evidence, including the photo, above, from this article also on Jeff Rense.

 

There is definitely something strange going on.  The article we link above is from a retired USAF Lt. Colonel who assures Rense's faithful readers that he had never seen anything like them.  

 

But it's difficult to separate the woo-woo from the good theories about them.  

 

Take your pick of the pseudoscience:

 

1) Chemtrails are the New World Order's method of thinning the herd, making the populace of the united states more easily subjugated when the big invasion starts.

 

2) Chemtrails are "mass inoculation" of the population in order to avoid a massive biowarfare attack on America.

 

3) Chemtrails are an attempt by the government to avoid imminent threats of global warming, by seeding the atmosphere with aluminum.

 

4) Chemtrails are an early American attempt at weather control. 

 

With all of these Evil Secret Masters theories floating around the issue, it's difficult to work through the garbage and get to the facts.

 

But what are the facts?  We know only that weird cloud formations are appearing in the sky, apparently left by government or unmarked aircraft.  The Lt. Colonel in the above article mentioned that dumping fuel into the atmosphere is a standard practice for Air Force flights, no matter where they are or what they happen to be doing.  But he admits that he had never seen such dumping appear in the "criss-cross" patterns typical of chemtrails.  

 

So, we want some skepticism.  We don't know what's going on, and our knowledge of atmospheric anomalies is hardly functional in these types of investigations. 

 

Can you help us sort this out?