\n<\/p>\n
Trump officials\u2019 recent attempt to dispel concerns about \u201cchemtrails\u201d has perplexed and angered some experts who say the administration has itself promoted the conspiracy theory while also spreading climate misinformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an intriguing strategy \u2026 in an administration that, depending on agency, is actively promulgating conspiracy theories or at least conspiratorial thinking,\u201d said Timothy Tangherlini, a professor at the Berkeley School of Information who studies the circulation of folklore and conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a website about contrails, trails of white vapor emitted aircrafts. Conspiracy theorists call the streaks \u201cchemtrails\u201d and believe they contain polluting chemicals meant to achieve mass sterilization, weather control or other nefarious plots. Though \u201cit is reasonable to ask questions\u201d, those beliefs are inaccurate, the page makes clear.<\/p>\n
Officials also launched a second webpage focused on geoengineering, which correctly notes that schemes to \u201ccool the Earth by intentionally modifying the amount of sunlight\u201d are \u201cbeing studied\u201d. It says \u201ccurrent federal research activity should not be interpreted as endorsement\u201d, though without explicitly stating that these efforts have not been widely practiced.<\/p>\n
The websites were published as baseless rumors swirled claiming weather-altering technology fueled recent catastrophic flooding in Texas. The EPA, however, says it \u201cplanned long ago to release these new online resources\u201d which it had been \u201cworking on for months\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegarding the flooding, EPA stands ready to help Texans get back on their feet in the wake of this tragedy,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Sijia Xiao, a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon University who for a 2021 study interviewed 20 current and former chemtrails believers, said the conspiracy theory attracts many people looking for simple explanations to tragedies.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral participants in my interviews, they related chemtrails to their personal health problems or environmental concerns like pollution,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd in this example of the Texas flood, I think people are trying to attribute a clear cause to a real life issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as it addresses false causes of the floods, Trump has continually shunned research into the climate crisis, which he has dismissed as a \u201choax\u201d. Research shows the deluge in the US south-west would have been less intense if not for the climate crisis, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than addressing climate change \u2013 which makes floods like those in Texas, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Illinois more intense, more deadly and more frequent \u2013 Trump\u2019s EPA is wasting taxpayer money chasing baseless conspiracy theories that scientists debunked years ago,\u201d said the Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a climate hawk. \u201cIt\u2019s a distraction from the Trump administration\u2019s free pass to big oil on its pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Trump re-entered the White House in January, EPA has slashed funding for climate research, removed all mentions of climate from federal websites, and cut staff for weather forecasting and scientific agencies. He has also cracked down on climate accountability efforts, including lawsuits accusing big oil of a conspiracy to spread climate misinformation.<\/p>\n
The president has also repeatedly referred to green regulations as a \u201cscam\u201d and repeated climate denialist talking points, while his administration has spread misinformation about elections and vaccines. As recently as two months ago, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump\u2019s health and human services secretary, also suggested that the chemtrail conspiracy theory is real, saying in a televised town hall he would \u201cdo everything in my power to stop\u201d their spread.<\/p>\n
Even after Zeldin announced the new initiative, Kennedy appeared to maintain his position, praising the administrator and Trump for taking on the \u201cdiabolical mass poisoning of our people, our communities, our waterways and farms, and our purple mountains, majesty\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all contributing to this environment, this idea that you should have low trust in institutions,\u201d said Tangherlini, the folklore expert. \u201cAnd when you have low trust in institutions and in the information sources that you have access to, you are going to come up with a plausible story that resonates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some have been able to integrate the new EPA websites into those stories, claiming they merely provide evidence that the government is continuing to cover up information about chemtrails.<\/p>\n
\u201cConspiracy theory is a self-fulfilling feedback loop where everything can be turned into evidence of supporting their beliefs,\u201d said Xiao.<\/p>\n
Though the chemtrail belief is not based in reality, real conspiracies have existed through American history, said Tangherlini, including ones that involved the cover-up of covertly sprayed chemicals.<\/p>\n
Today, the Trump administration is openly dismantling protections against toxic and planet-warming pollutants, allowing corporations to truly conspire against the American people, said Aaron Regunberg, climate accountability project director at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/strong>Just like big tobacco lied about cigarettes causing cancer, big oil has spent decades running a vast conspiracy to deceive the public on climate change,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why Maga [Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again movement] wants us talking about this chemtrails garbage \u2013 because there\u2019s a real conspiracy implicating their big oil cronies that they don\u2019t want the American people to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trump officials\u2019 recent attempt to dispel concerns about \u201cchemtrails\u201d has perplexed and angered some experts who say the administration has itself promoted the conspiracy theory while also spreading climate misinformation. \u201cThis is an intriguing strategy \u2026 in an administration that, depending on agency, is actively promulgating conspiracy theories or at least conspiratorial thinking,\u201d said Timothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[1054,2239,3970,2588,2599,320,290,2969,3033,3971,2589,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-10826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-address","9":"tag-agency","10":"tag-chemtrails","11":"tag-conspiracy","12":"tag-environmental","13":"tag-experts","14":"tag-misinformation","15":"tag-officials","16":"tag-protection","17":"tag-spreading","18":"tag-theories","19":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}