On Monday night, 17-year-old reality TV star (and apparent conspiracy theorist) Kylie Jenner tweeted a typo-ridden meme about airplane condensation trails. It's worth quoting the post in full:
For the record: No, Kylie Jenner, you do not need to be afraid of "chemtrails" — the term commonly used by conspiracy theorists to refer to the condensation trails that come from planes.
Condensation trails, or "contrails," are a byproduct of airplanes — formed naturally when the warm air that comes from a plane's engine mixes with the cold temperatures of the upper atmosphere. Conspiracy theorists argue that the government is using contrails as a cover to spread chemicals across the country, with a wide array of alleged effects (most commonly, controlling the weather and making people sick).
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
None of this has any basis in reality, but if you'd like some reassurance, here's a document from the Environmental Protection Agency explaining why contrails "pose no threat to public health." Here's a similar document from the Air Force. If you'd rather not take a federal agency at its word, Gawker's independent weather blog The Vane is one of many sources — including scientific journals, universities, and and major media organizations — to feature a thorough, scientific debunking of the conspiracy theory. You can read it here.
The one caveat, cited by many who have investigated the conspiracy theory, including the EPA: contrails may contribute to human-induced climate change. So Kylie, if you're really worried about it, maybe cut down on all that private plane travel?
