We’ve all seen those white streaks trailing behind jets , creating stripes against the blue sky.

The lines are called contrails , short for condensation trails, and they appear when water vapour condenses and freezes around the exhaust from an aircraft, according to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

At least that’s what science says . In recent years, a growing number of people believe that these contrails are actually chemtrails — a well-established conspiracy theory asserting that these trails aren’t made from condensation at all, but are instead chemicals being sprayed by the government.

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The presence of contrails in the sky have sparked numerous conspiracy theories. (CNN)

Though the theory may sound far-fetched to some, chemtrails have become a common conspiracy both in the US and around the world, despite evidence to the contrary.

What is the chemtrails conspiracy theory?

The chemtrails idea has been around since 1996, and is largely rooted in an Air Force research paper from the same year: Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the weather in 2025 . It outlines a “future weather modification system to achieve military objectives” using “aerospace forces,” and “does not reflect current military policy, practice, or capability,” the Environmental Protection Agency has stated .

At its most basic, the chemtrails conspiracy theory posits that contrails are not created by water vapour at all, but instead are a sign that the government, the wealthy, or some mix of the two, is secreting toxic chemicals into the air, creating these white lines.

Ideas about the purpose of these supposed toxic chemicals vary. Some believe the chemicals are being used to poison humanity, others say it’s for mind control, and some think it’s a way for the government to control the weather.

There’s no single official version of the theory, said Sijia Xiao, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, who conducted a 2021 study exploring the chemtrails conspiracy theory and interviewing 20 believers and former believers. Instead, individuals “pick and choose aspects that resonate with them, mixing in personal interpretations or selectively adopting parts of the theory.”

An Airbus A380 leaves a stream of contrails as it takes flight. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

How did the chemtrails conspiracy theory take off?

The idea that the government is spraying humanity with chemicals isn’t completely without base.

During the Cold War, the British government conducted more than 750 mock chemical warfare attacks on the general public, according to researchers. This subjected hundreds of thousands of people to zinc cadmium sulfide, a chemical chosen due to its small size — it’s similar to that of germs — and because it glows under ultraviolet light, making it easy to trace. The chemical was thought to be nontoxic at the time, though repeated exposure could be cancerous . The US did the same in the 1950s and 1960s — using the chemical as a tracer to test the dispersion of biological weapons.

Though these tests were decades ago, the theory has flourished — so much so that in 2016, the EPA published a 14-page document explaining contrails, outlining the chemicals used by the Air Force, and attempting to dispute the conspiracy.

In 2021, a Facebook post went viral claiming that President Joe Biden “manipulated” the weather through chemtrails and caused Texas’s week-long deep freeze that February — with hundreds of people engaging with the message.

On X, thousands of people follow accounts dedicated to tracking and posting proof of these chemtrails. One 2017 study, which had a nationally representative sample of 1000 people, found that about 10 per cent of Americans believed the conspiracy “completely,” while upwards of 30% of Americans at least found it “somewhat” true.

Belief in conspiracies is often traced back to skepticism of authority figures, Xiao said, and social media has also had a role in magnifying the problem.

Social media’s algorithmic structure means people see information that reinforces their existing beliefs. Ex-believers interviewed attributed their ongoing belief in part to the “sheer amount of pro-conspiracy information” on their social media feeds, said Coye Cheshire, a professor at UC Berkeley studying social psychology, who was also involved in the study with Xiao. Scientific evidence debunking the theories simply wouldn’t make it onto their feeds or in their social groups. Even if it did, other believers will only reinforce the theory.

The malleable nature of the conspiracy theory helps give it strength, said Cheshire.

Several passenger planes dot the sky, each leaving a stream of contrails. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

“As some believers told us, the power of the conspiracy is that it can be adjusted to fit any new information since the ‘smoking gun’ evidence never seems to come,” Cheshire said. “For example, even if believers are not sure that the so-called chemtrails are actually being used for population control, the narrative can easily shift to weather manipulation and climate change without requiring any new information or evidence.”

There’s also the simple fact that we can see the contrails with our own eyes. Their visibility and presence in everyday life helps draw even more interest to the theory, Xiao added.

“Chemtrails have been the most interesting conspiracy, because it’s right in front of our face and we still choose to ignore it,” one believer told Xiao and Cheshire.

Though the theory may seem silly to some, the underlying concerns of the believers come from “legitimate societal and environmental issues that warrant attention,” Xiao said. Distrust in the government, concerns about environmental issues, or even struggles with chronic illnesses can all lend credibility to the chemtrails theory, suggesting that something else is causing these societal issues.

Are chemtrails real? Here’s what experts have said

Scientists have said there is no evidence for the existence of chemtrails. Even if there was a government conspiracy at work in aircraft contrails, such a large-scale program would be difficult to cover up given the amount of people who would be necessary for operation, Harvard researchers noted.

Around the world, scientists have conducted investigations debunking the chemtrails conspiracy theory, describing the existence of contrails and their variances at length. Even Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency , has stated that chemtrails “are not a thing.”

Still, believers are not convinced. Belief in the theory has become so strong that meteorologists around the world have reported an uptick in harassment and threats, usually after extreme weather, particularly from conspiracy theorists accusing them of hiding information.

EPA head mercilessly mocked for taking a serious look into chemtrails conspiracy theory

Republican Lee Zeldin claimed the EPA is determined to deliver “total transparency” regarding an “issue” that has been cast as nothing more than a Republican-backed conspiracy theory

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin (Image: Getty Images )

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency was slammed online for launching two investigations into the unfounded conspiracy theory of “geoengineering and contrails,” which some believed is used to change the weather.

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Republican Lee Zeldin claimed the EPA is determined to deliver “total transparency” regarding an “issue” that has been cast as nothing more than a Republican-backed conspiracy theory. Zeldin claimed Americans have been “vilified” over the years for rightfully inquiring about the issue. The failed New York gubernatorial candidate announced the initiative on X.

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“The Trump EPA is committed to total transparency. I tasked my team to compile everything we know about contrails and geoengineering to release to you now publicly. I want you to know EVERYTHING I know about these topics, and without ANY exception!” he wrote.

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X users joined lawmakers in mocking Zeldin online (Image: Getty Images )

The message was also shared by the official EPA account. He was quickly taunted by his Democratic counterpart Rep. Don Beyer of Northern Virginia. “The Trump Administration breaks new ground finding stupid ways to elevate kooks and loons every day. This is genuinely insane,” he wrote on X. “Will NASA investigate the moon landing next? It doesn’t seem so unlikely at this point!”

“There are scientists who work at the Environmental Protection Agency who could explain water vapor and condensation to Lee Zeldin, but unfortunately he is trying to fire all of them,” Beyer added.

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Other users quickly joined in on the fun. “I hear there are bigfoot sightings and some people say a pipebomb wielding Neanderthal has been elected to Congress, will no one investigate these things?” one wrote.

“Dude, you think you can change the weather. Talk about crazy,” added a second.

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Zeldin later shared a video to a new page on the EPA website dedicated to “the current state of science and research surrounding geoengineering.” The page will also list work done by officials to “identify and track private actors potentially engaged in such activities.”

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The right believes airplanes leave behind toxic chemicals disguised as condensation trails (Image: Getty Images )

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Contrails are produced by a combination of water vapor and exhaust from an aircraft engine, which is sprayed at low ambient temperatures. Cloud seeding, believed by some to be a practice used to influence weather, is a real process used to produce rainfall in extremely dry areas.

Republicans say the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory is real and claims it is when airplanes leave behind white condensation trails that are actually toxic chemicals or biological sprays utilized by ill-intentioned organizations. Why one would spread toxins in the air remains open to interpretation, but some believe its meant to control the population and change the weather at will.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday appeared to nod to conspiracy theories that have swirled around recent extreme weather events, directing people to the agency’s website for science-based information on geoengineering and contrails.

In a post on X, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said that people “have legitimate questions about contrails and geoengineering, and they deserve straight answers.”

“We’re publishing everything EPA knows about these topics on these websites,” he wrote in a news release Thursday that promised “total transparency with the American public.”

“EPA shares the significant reservations many Americans have when it comes to geoengineering activities,” he said.

The new websites offer a variety of information that appears to stick closely to generally accepted definitions and science around geoengineering and the government’s ongoing research on contrails. Some sections even debunk the more outlandish claims of government weather control.

“Has large-scale solar geoengineering deployment already happened?” the EPA’s new “Frequent Questions” section asks, answering: “No. The U.S. government is not engaged in any form of outdoor solar geoengineering testing (e.g., small-scale experiments designed to study injection technologies) or large-scale deployment (e.g., intentional use of SRM to cool the Earth).” SRM refers to solar radiation modification.

Severe weather events have hammered parts of the United States in recent days. In Texas, at least 120 people have died and 173 are still missing after a devastating flood wiped out at least six communities July 4. Four days later, in New Mexico, at least three people died after a flood in Ruidoso, a resort town already susceptible to mudslides and runoff after two catastrophic fires last year.

Scientifically baseless claims of weather control have become an increasingly common reaction to extreme weather, moving from the fringe and into some mainstream discourse. Many of these claims center on fears of government control of the weather, with some pointing to technologies like cloud seeding, a technique used to increase rain and snowfall. Others offer a vague assertion that whatever is happening to the weather is not natural.

“Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake,” Kandiss Taylor, a Republican congressional candidate in Georgia, said in a July 5 post on X about the Texas flood, now pinned on her page.

President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin launched two new resources to deliver “total transparency” for Americans curious about “geoengineering and contrails,” whom he said had been unfairly “vilified” for years for questions asked in “good faith.”

Taking to X on Thursday Zeldin promised that the days of being stonewalled on this particular issue were over.

Americans have questions about geoengineering and contrails. They expect honesty and transparency from their government when seeking answers. For years, people who asked questions in good faith were dismissed, even vilified by the media and their own government. This ends today. — Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) July 10, 2025

The message was also shared by the official EPA account.

An hour later Zeldin shared a video and a link to a new page on the EPA website that he said “delves into the current state of science and research surrounding geoengineering.” The page will also detail work done by the agency to “identify and track private actors potentially engaged in such activities.”

The Trump EPA is committed to total transparency. I tasked my team @EPA to compile everything we know about contrails and geoengineering to release to you now publicly. I want you to know EVERYTHING I know about these topics, and without ANY exception! https://t.co/izKBz0lFvr pic.twitter.com/FkOCgBm3K9 — Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) July 10, 2025

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other agencies, contrails are produced by a combination of water vapor in aircraft engine exhaust ejected at low ambient temperatures. Cloud seeding, however, is also a real practice that tries to implement rainfall in dry areas.

The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory posits that the white condensation trails left by airplanes are toxic chemical or biological sprays spread by nefarious actors. Followers of the idea speculate on a range of reasons, including population manipulation and weather control.

Zeldin’s announcement drew immediate backlash from Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who is co-chair of Caucus On Climate and called the proposal to investigate “genuinely insane.”

The Trump Administration breaks new ground finding stupid ways to elevate kooks and loons every day. This is genuinely insane https://t.co/Jr3Rze7DPY — Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) July 10, 2025

Still, Zeldin’s championing of the issue, however, comes as the idea of chemtrail and geoengineering projects being enacted upon the unsuspecting U.S. population gains traction in some Republican-led state legislatures.

In May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signaled support for a ban on “weather modification activities” – including the airborne release of particles to reflect sunlight. Tennessee enacted a similar law last year, as did states like Kentucky, Arizona, and Iowa.

This article has been updated.

Lee Zeldin, the Trump-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Thursday attempted to walk a fine line between placating conspiracy theorists and dispelling misinformation. Unfortunately, he seems to have left many people confused as to the agency’s actual policies and actions.

“Americans have questions about geoengineering and contrails,” Zeldin wrote in a post on X. “They expect honesty and transparency from their government when seeking answers. For years, people who asked questions in good faith were dismissed, even vilified by the media and their own government. This ends today.”

To some, this sounded as if Zeldin was giving credence to unsubstantiated claims about “chemtrails,” a misnomer for contrails, the white streaks of vapor condensation that sometimes trail behind planes in the sky. The “questions” he referenced almost certainly pertain to a widespread suspicion that these cloud lines indicate some form of climate manipulation (“geoengineering”) or the mass spraying of the population with biological agents or chemicals (hence “chemtrails”).

This has never been the reality, yet for decades many Americans have persisted in the belief that contrails are proof of a nefarious plot to blanket them with unknown toxins. In fact, it’s such a popular and enduring conspiracy theory that eight states have produced legislation aimed at outlawing chemtrails — if not exactly by name. The law that Florida passed last month, for example, bans “geoengineering and weather modification activities.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, known to be partial to various conspiracy theories, is attempting to advance a similar bill in Congress.

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What Zeldin was announcing, however, was the EPA’s launch of online resources meant to debunk misconceptions about contrails. The new government web page on contrails explains, in part, that “chemtrails” is “a term some people use to inaccurately claim that contrails resulting from routine air traffic are actually an intentional release of dangerous chemicals or biological agents at high altitudes for a variety of nefarious purposes, including population control, mind control, or attempts to geoengineer Earth or modify the weather.” It also states: “The federal government is not aware of there ever being a contrail intentionally formed over the United States for the purpose of geoengineering or weather modification.” Editor’s picks

A separate page about geoengineering notes, “The U.S. government is not engaged in any form of outdoor solar geoengineering testing,” nor “large-scale deployment” of such technology.

The replies to Zeldin’s comments and the link to the accurate EPA reports he shared were swarmed by blue check conspiracists who simply continued to peddle the usual falsehoods about what they think contrails are. One Florida resident responded with a picture of contrails, complaining that he was still seeing them even after the state passed its legislation on weather modification. Others spread misinformation that has circulated in right-wing circles about the supposedly artificial causes of the deadly flooding in Texas this month.

Greene — who was among the MAGA crowd incorrectly blaming those floods on weather-altering substances released into the atmosphere — did not seem to realize that Zeldin’s materials ran contrary to her own narrative. “Thank you Secretary Zeldin!” she wrote on X (Zeldin is an administrator and does not hold a formal cabinet secretary position). The congresswoman then segued into another pitch for her bill, which she said would prohibit “the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump‘s health secretary and an avowed chemtrails conspiracy theorist, also responded to Zeldin as if the EPA chief had affirmed his views on the subject instead of discrediting them. “I’m so proud of my friend Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump for their commitment to finally shatter the Deep State Omerta regarding the diabolical mass poisoning of our people, our communities, our waterways and farms, and our purple mountains, majesty,” Kennedy wrote on X. This was despite the EPA reports making it clear that contrails are not “poisoning” anybody.

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At least one Democrat, Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, was critical of Zeldin for having the EPA bother to engage with conspiracy theorists at all. “Some people have ‘questions’ about whether birds are real — will that be your next project?” he wrote on X. “How much taxpayer money will you be spending on this?” Trending Stories T.I. and Tiny’s $71 Million Award at Doll Trial Chopped Down to $18 Million Ex-Pearl Jam Drummer Dave Abbruzzese Says ‘The Water Under the Bridge Runs Too Icy’ for Reunion Former Superman Dean Cain Says Hollywood Has Made the Character Too ‘Woke’ Man Afraid to Ride Subway Named Head of NASA

Zeldin is not the only Trump appointee trying to tamp down misinformation from the MAGA base. Many right-wing influencers were furious when the FBI and Justice Department issued a memo this week to say that investigators had found no evidence that the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was murdered, nor that he had kept a “client list” he used for blackmail purposes. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had previously teased bombshell revelations in the case, bore the brunt of their wrath as they insisted the government was hiding the truth. FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, also responsible for overpromising on new Epstein information, are likewise in an awkward spot with Trump supporters demanding prosecutions of his associates.

But this is just politics as usual when you come to power on a wave of lies and suddenly find out they won’t play when you’re in charge. If Trump officials acknowledged that chemtrails were real, or that certain elites can be directly implicated in Epstein’s crimes, they would have to do something about it. And that’s a little tricky when the “it” is entirely made up.