Science Promises They Aren't Controlling the Weather. But They'd Love to Try.
You've seen contrails before -- those long cloud streams left when planes cross the sky. If the air is humid and cold enough, water vapor from the jet exhaust condenses into ice crystals. That's what makes the clouds. If you believe what they tell us. A fair amount of people don't. They're convinced those streaks are "chemtrails", part of the government's secret plan to control the weather by spraying chemicals into the stratosphere, putting innocent people below in danger. The suspicion isn't without basis. In 1996 the U.S. Air Force commissioned a study to brainstorm the potential military benefits of weather modification. The report, called "Weather as a Force Multiplier", addressed a wide spectrum of possibilities for this yet unproven tactic. Ideas ranged from removing rain for better communication or lifting fog to improve visibility, to more aggressive outcomes like flooding enemy lines and disrupting enemy surveillance. Believers in...
