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I ran across a fantastic article on Gawker, written by Dennis Mersereau, that breaks down and debunks the major factors conspiracy theorists attempt to use when justifying their beliefs regarding “Government modified weather” including chemtrails, cloud seeding, etc.
The article takes a different approach than what most meteorologists/sane weather enthusiast (including me) take when it comes to dealing with these theories, which is to ignore those who believe that the Government spends time and money modifying our weather to create droughts and other extreme weather events. In case you didn’t know, here’s a little secret…they don’t. The one big factor we have to prove this? SCIENCE
The following was taken from the article, which makes several great points about how we’ve been dealing with the conspiracy believers the wrong way:
“In 2003, Barbra Streisand frantically tried to censor pictures of her home in Malibu after someone posted them online. In 2003, millions of people saw pictures of Barbra Streisand’s home in Malibu. In what became known as the Streisand effect, attempts to suppress information about something usually backfires and leads to even more publicity for the supposedly secret thing.
There is a strong argument in the weather community that we should ignore the growing number of people who sincerely believe that there is a worldwide governmental conspiracy to control the weather through, among other means, “chemtrails.” Bringing attention to their cause, one may argue, only helps to attract more attention and thereby more adherents to this particular brand of anti-science.
While that is probably true for a small number of people, ignoring the conspiracy theorists only makes them scream louder for attention through the Streisand Effect. The best way to remedy a situation isn’t to bottle it up and pretend that it isn’t happening, but rather to shine light on it and expose the silliness for what it really is.”
Makes sure you check out the entire piece. It’s not very long, and takes several different angles on debunking the ever growing theory that the Government alters and creates our weather. Be sure to check it out!