For Daniel Hope, the journey into the world of chemtrail belief began with a teenage curiosity. “I was 14, 15, just looking into stuff. The sky isn’t really as blue as it used to be, especially in London. Notice the blue in older photos.” he explained. 

This seemingly simple observation – a sky less blue than in childhood photographs – led down a rabbit hole of online research. Now, years later, at age 20, Daniel remains convinced that something is amiss in the skies above, pointing to persistent contrails as evidence of a hidden agenda.

Sarah Turner, 34, a geography expert, says that “Contrails, in simple terms, are when aeroplanes emit water vapour as part of the combustion process of the fuel.”

Daniel is not convinced. 

“Water vapour doesn’t behave like this,” he said. “It doesn’t disperse in the same amount of time; it’s extremely dense. There’s a study conducted by Clifford Carnicom regarding the materials found in aerosol particulate matter, and it’s filled with pesticides, heavy metals and certain toxins.”

When asked about evidence, Daniel provided, saying: “There are plenty of controlled observations. In the same sky, you’d have a commercial plane, then your own plane. The contrails they leave – you’d see an incredible difference between the two.

“That’s pretty convincing evidence, not to mention HAARP.”

HAARP is a research facility the US Government runs and, according to Daniel, “they do a bunch of weather stuff.”

Well, why would the government do this?

“There’s a lot of wacky ideas out there regarding what it might be, but realistically it’s probably weaponising the weather,” Daniel suggested. “The Air Force wrote a document called Weaponising the Weather in 1996. It outlines how the air force can use weather patterns to disrupt enemy communications. It can be used to enhance radio signals and high frequency transmissions between stations. Think about the corporate and military implications of that.”

He dismissed some of the more outlandish theories surrounding chemtrails, such as the idea that it’s for mind control or population control. “Those sound like conspiracies to me. But believing there’s zero malicious intent behind what the government is doing is naive.”

Daniel’s criticisms and skepticism toward the US government extend to the UK too, saying: “The government is Boeing’s largest customer in the US, and partners with loads of universities in the UK. It wouldn’t be too hard to say that our government has a lot of influence over how Boeing designs their planes and they could easily slip in something here and there. 

“Not to mention, our government is tied up with a lot of financial interests. Our UK government’s kind of a bitch. Sort of bends over and gets told what to do by the States. I mean, it’s kind of ironic how we became a colony, almost.”

“Think about it. This is the highest rate of respiratory disease ever now; everyone’s coughing – governments do things all the time that poison people, that kill people. This is not anything radical in terms of the harm it has to the human population. Governments have done far worse.

“The Belgian Congo is an example of a government that used to cut people’s hands off for no reason. We’re gonna assume that the government isn’t working with multinational corporations to harm people for profit? Like they haven’t done that for centuries?”

A chemtrail contrarian, a 34 year old pilot and father from Blackpool, has dedicated all his spare time to…well, you guessed it, debunking chemtrails. Going only by his online persona ChemtrailDebunker, he joked: “My wife would tell you this is my full time job.” 

Spending hours a day on Facebook groups such as Chemtrails UK, ChemtrailDebunker has seen some bizarre claims. 

“There’s a lot of mistrust that seems to be growing. Some people think they’re spraying chemicals to alter human DNA.” 

His passion for debunking started from his aviation training as a pilot in 2005, and since then, ChemtrailDebunker said his knowledge of the aviation industry has only grown. “Their claims of chemtrails are absolute nonsense. Without an understanding of atmospheric physics, it’s easy to get sucked into those long narratives being circulated.”

Some theorists are so adamant about their perspective, they’ve even sent ChemtrailDebunker death threats. “I’ve gotten messages from people saying they’re going to shoot up my family, which is scary, and a big reason why I work under anonymity.”

With chemtrails being one of the top believed conspiracy theories in the world, ChemtrailDebunker is working with a handful. Posting daily in 40-50 Facebook groups and managing a TikTok with nearly 10K followers to continue his work, he said: “It’s all about making posts that will get their attention. Once they leave a comment, I can start picking it apart.” 

“I’ll answer everything with scientific data or evidence.”

The funny thing is, according to ChemtrailDebunker, most of these theorists don’t have the same opinion on chemtrails. 

“They all seem to have different narratives on what they think contrails are. They can’t get their story straight. Is it a fighter jet spraying these supposed chemicals? Is it cargo planes or passenger planes? They don’t even know.” 

As frustrating as it may be for your hobby to be debating with people, ChemtrailDebunker has others stepping in to back him up. “There are frequent commenters who are on my side now – I’m not a lone wolf in this fight against misinformation.” 

“At the end of the day, I’m not trying to offend anyone. I am only trying to help, and I wouldn’t want my kids to believe in misinformation like this. But at the end of the day I believe it’s the right thing and everyone has the right to know the facts.”

What do the experts think? 

Previously a teacher and now a transport planning professional at Heathrow Airport, Sarah Turner, with a Master of Science in Transport and City Planning from University College London, has a firm grasp on both the complexities of the atmosphere and the challenges of effectively communicating cloudy concepts. 

“I’m gonna go out there and say chemtrails aren’t a thing.” 

Aside from a background in teaching, Sarah also graduated from Oxford with a Bachelors in human and physical Geography. Sarah is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a skeptic when it comes to chemtrails.

“A misconception is that they’re somehow planned. Or there’s some sort of malintent behind them, or an organisation behind them. People aren’t doing this on purpose, it’s just a process – an output of the combustion of fuel.”

Drawing on her years of patiently explaining complex concepts to teenagers, she now employs the same calm, clear approach to explaining how contrails are formed. 

“High up in the sky, the air is cold. If you have water vapour in cold air, that vapour will cool and condense, and cause water droplets or ice droplets to form. That is how clouds are formed.”

Sarah said, “It’s also to do with the humidity of the air. If the air is more humid, the contrail may stick around. If the air is drier, then that water will be absorbed again. Then there’s weather related cloud cover. If it’s a cloudy day, we won’t see the contrast. It doesn’t mean they’re not being created, because that same process is still happening – they just won’t stand out in comparison to a day where there’s clear blue skies.” 

“If you’re in an area which is a high traffic aviation corridor – cities like London for example, then that increased cloud cover could affect local weather conditions.” 

Sarah, who not only previously navigated the sometimes-chaotic world of Geography in classrooms, finds herself deciphering the misconceptions of the skies, though she admits the latter might be even more perplexing at times. 

“Without an understanding of weather and atmosphere, it can be confusing. For people who have taken Geography, or done Science GCSEs, it might seem quite simple, but not everyone is in that position.”

“Contrails, in the way I’ve explained them, are harmless to people. As a contributing factor to global warming, people could be concerned, but it’s a small factor compared to everything else that is increased in the greenhouse effect.”

To quote Chemtrail Debunker, “Scepticism is always healthy, and it’s necessary in science. But it should be based on critical thinking.”