Written By: GLORIA TATUM
2-13-2011
With additional reporting by Matthew Cardinale, News Editor
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/interspire/news/2011/02/13/persistent-plane-contrails-cover-atlanta-skies-raise-concerns.html
(APN) ATLANTA -- Over the last several months, Atlanta Progressive News and Atlanta residents have been documenting an increase in white lines left from airplanes flying overhead, sometimes covering Atlanta's skies with persistent plane contrails.
Persistent airplane contrails have in fact been appearing more and more all over the country and creating controversy, according to numerous television news reports from other US cities.
The white trails sometimes stretch from horizon to horizon, and instead of dissipating within seconds like most normal contrails do, they get wider, lingering until they merge with other such contrails to create artificial clouds.
APN began collecting photographic evidence of these contrails in December 2010. While APN is undertaking a thorough investigation of what these persistent contrails are, why they linger, and what the environmental impacts may be, this article represents the information we have uncovered to date.
Meanwhile, CBS Atlanta TV news ran a report on the persistent contrails a couple weeks ago, focusing on conspiracy theories that such contrails--or geoengineered chemtrails, as they are commonly called--are being deliberately sprayed by the US government as part of geoengineering experiments, designed to impact the climate.
While APN has certainly not ruled out the hypothesis of US government experiments--to be sure, US history is filled with all kinds of covert government testing programs--our investigation has proceeded rather from the open-ended questions listed above. And even if they are perfectly normal airplane contrails, air quality concerns may still be warranted.
According to a Discovery Channel documentary on chemtrails, there are several pollutants which come out of normal airplane contrails, including nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitric acid, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane.
Last year, Michael Murphy produced a documentary called, "What In The World Are They Spraying," which examines the contrail/chemtrail phenomenon. The documentary debuted in Atlanta on October 23, 2010, at the Atlanta History Center on West Paces Ferry Road.
Since the film debuted, local activists have also been hosting additional screenings at public libraries throughout the Atlanta area.
"What most people call chemtrails are what scientists and geoengineers call trails from stratospheric aerosol geoengineering programs where aerosols/chemicals are sprayed out of airplanes in the atmosphere and spread out eventually creating cloud cover that blocks the sun," Murphy told APN.
"These are seen on a regular basis above every major city in the US and around the world. After these trails are witnessed they leave a measurable amount of aluminum, barium, strontium, and other toxic metals and chemicals," Murphy claims.
"These trails match geoengineers' plans and proposals for aerosol spraying; the metal fallout from these trails match numerous patents designed for spraying aerosol aluminum from airplanes; and thousands of tests taken from the fallout match geoengineers' plans exactly," Murphy said.
Murphy doubts that the persistent contrails witnessed in recent months are normal airplane exhaust.
"Persistent contrails are condensation that persists longer than the normal contrail. Persistent contrail are very rare and require very specific atmospheric conditions which include very cold and very humid air," Murphy said.
One could argue that the increase in persistent contrails over Atlanta skies is due to an increase in airplane traffic.
However, the documentary shows that persistent contrails have been appearing over remote, rural areas, where such air traffic typically does not occur, including Lake Shasta, California; and Show Low, Arizona.
An undated government report posted on the US Air Force website, "Contrails Facts," responds directly to what it calls the Chemtrail Hoax.
"A hoax that has been around since 1996 accuses the Air Force of being involved in spraying the US population with mysterious substances and show various Air Force aircraft releasing sprays or generating unusual contrail patterns," the Air Force writes.
"Several authors cite an Air University research paper titled 'Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025' that suggests the Air Force is conducting weather modification experiments. The purpose of that paper was part of a thesis to outline a strategy for the use of a future weather modification system to achieve military objectives and it does not reflect current military policy, practice, or capability," the report states.
"The Air Force's policy is to observe and forecast the weather. The Air Force is focused on observing and forecasting the weather so the information can be used to support military operations. The Air Force is not conducting any weather modification experiments or programs and has no plans to do so in the future," the report states.
The report also discusses the atmospheric conditions which impact whether a contrail persists or dissipates.
"For a contrail to form, suitable conditions must occur immediately behind a jet engine in the expanding engine exhaust plume. A contrail will form if, as the exhaust gases cool and mix with surrounding air, the humidity becomes high enough (or, equivalently, the air temperature becomes low enough) for liquid water to condense on particles and form liquid droplets. If the local air is cold enough, these newly formed droplets then freeze and form ice particles that make up a contrail," the report states.
"Because the basic processes are very well understood, contrail formation for a given aircraft flight can be accurately predicted if atmospheric temperature and humidity conditions are known. After the initial formation of ice, a contrail evolves in one of two ways. If the humidity is low, the contrail will be short-lived. Newly formed ice particles will quickly evaporate. The resulting contrail will extend only a short distance behind the aircraft," the report states.
"If the humidity is high, the contrail will be persistent. Newly formed ice particles will continue to grow in size by taking water from the surrounding atmosphere. The resulting lineshaped contrail extends for large distances behind an aircraft. Persistent contrails can last for hours while growing to several kilometers in width and 200 to 400 meters in height. Contrails spread because of air turbulence created by the passage of aircraft, differences in wind speed along the flight track, and possibly through effects of solar heating," the report states.
APN contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which provided a link to another report on airplane contrails, "Contrail Education," produced by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and referred APN to several other agencies.
APN also contacted the US Environmental Protection Agency's Atlanta regional office, which provided a link to an EPA website on airplane pollution and referred APN to its national office. APN will contact these additional agencies and offices in continuing to investigate persistent contrails.
GEO-ENGINEERING
While it is not clear whether the persistent contrails witnessed recently are the result of a geo-engineering program, geo-engineering is a real industry being pursued by entrepreneurs who see financial opportunity in the climate change crisis.
US patent #5003186 from 1991 titled "Stratospheric Welsbach Seeding for Reduction of Global Warming" is also known as the Welsbach Patent. The Welsbach materials include metal oxides such as aluminum oxide. One technique proposed in the "Welsbach Patent" was to add tiny metallic particles to the jet fuel and emit them from the jet engine exhaust while the airline was at cruising altitudes.
Geoengineering Watch states that, "Extremely high quantities of aluminum, barium, strontium and other metals and chemicals are showing up in rainwater, surface water, and air. In just the last four years, citizens in the Pacific Northwest have taken dozens of tests where the levels of aluminum has escalated hundreds of times from the first tests. Some tests of single rain events have elevated nearly 50,000 percent from the original 7 parts per billion."
Some of the evidence of increased aluminum in air, soil, and water, is presented in the documentary.
"The metals found exactly match the primary elements listed in a host of geo-engineering patents assigned to Hughes Aircraft, Department of Defense (DOD), Raytheon, and others. These patents describe the specific goal of creating artificial cloud cover and other forms of weather/climate modification."
The California State Department of Health, Drinking Water Division collects all of the water test data from every public drinking water source in California. It discovered that Barium, Magnesium, Lead, Manganese, Aluminum, Iron, Sodium, and Specific Conductance (the ability of water to conduct a charge), were being found under unusual circumstances in our drinking water supplies. Unusual spikes were occurring in almost all drinking water sources in Mendocino County and in other counties throughout the State of California, since 1994.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) met in San Diego, California, on February 20, 2010, and brought together climate scientists, geologists, and social policy scholars to discuss geoengineering and how to use it to combat global warming. Proposals included altering the atmosphere to make it reflect away more of the heat of the sun or seeding clouds above the oceans.
USA Today newspaper reports that Microsoft founder Bill Gates has turned his attention to controlling the weather. Five US Patent and Trade Office patent applications, made public on July 09, 2010, propose slowing hurricanes. If issued, the patents offer 18 years of legal rights to the idea for Gates and co-inventors, including climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Scott Barrett, an economist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, writes, "In contrast to emission reductions, this approach [geo-engineering] is inexpensive and can be undertaken by a single country, unilaterally. But geoengineering also has worrying consequences: it may harm some countries; it would not address ocean acidification; it would pose new risks. The fundamental challenge posed by this new technology is not free riding but governance: who should decide if and under what circumstances geoengineering should be used?"
On November 05, 2009, with US Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) presiding, the US Science and Technology Committee held a hearing to introduce the concept of climate engineering.
On February 04, 2010, with US Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) presiding, the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing to explore the scientific foundation of several climate engineering proposals.
On March 18, 2010, Gordon's Committee held a hearing to explore the domestic and international governance needs to initiate and guide a climate engineering research program.
ATTEMPTS TO REACH CONGRESS
In the documentary, Murphy and other question Members of Congress about geo-engineering. Most Members either did not know about geoengineering or ignored and avoided the documentary crew's questions.
Only US Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said she would accept their mountain of evidence and turn it over to Mr. Phil Lavelle, an aide, to check out.
APN called Feinstein's office to see what they learned. Lavell did not return two weeks of phonecalls seeking comment.
"Senator Chambliss (R-GA) is aware of ongoing discussion regarding geo-engineering. At this time, no legislation has been introduced. However, should legislation be brought forth for consideration, Senator Chambliss will thoroughly review before deciding whether to support it," Ashley Nelson Saunders, Senator Chambliss's press secretary, told APN.
Chambliss's office did not address the persistent contrails already appearing over Atlanta skies, despite photographs provided by APN.
US Rep. Hank Johnson's (D-GA) office did not respond to several requests for comment. Neither did US Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) office.
Brenda Jones, press secretary of US Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), told APN "The best route to find more information on these trails and geoengineering would be to contact the staff of the chairmen who held the hearing on Geoengineering." However, neither of the two Chairmen, Gordon and Baird, are serving in Congress any longer.
(END / 2011)
skeptics will be skeptics... Hey, by the way, isn't time we change our national motto to "Ignorance is Bliss?"
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