The Tennessee House of Representatives has approved a bill aimed at prohibiting geo-engineering initiatives, banning deliberate attempts to modify Earth’s atmospheric conditions with the overarching goal of combating climate change effects.
The bill, also approved by the state senate, targets a spectrum of technologies. The potential interventions range from the speculative concept of solar radiation modification—which involves managing the amount of solar energy Earth receives—to established yet localized tactics like cloud seeding, which are employed to enhance precipitation levels.
The legislative debate was not without controversy. Dialogue among legislators occasionally blurred the lines between evidenced reality and speculation, with some legislators insinuating that solar geo-engineering efforts are already active.
Others seemingly brought forth concerns that resonate with the widely debunked “chemtrails” conspiracy theory.
“This will be my wife’s favorite bill of the year. She has worried about this, I bet, 10 years. It’s been going on a long, long time,” Republican Sen. Frank Niceley said at a hearing about the bill last month, NBC News reported. “If you look up — one day, it’ll be clear. The next day they will look like some angels have been playing tic-tac-toe. They’re everywhere. I’ve got pictures on my phone with X’s right over my house. For years they denied they were doing anything.”
The subject of the bill, chemtrails, refers to a conspiracy theory without scientific backing. Proponents of this theory erroneously believe that aircraft are intentionally dispersing harmful chemicals under the guise of normal condensation trails, or contrails, possibly to manipulate human behavior or health.
A more recent twist on this theory has emerged, claiming these supposed chemical trails are actually tools for weather or climate control. Justin Mankin, a climatologist at Dartmouth University, dismissed these theories as baseless.
“It’s conspiratorial nonsense,” he said, according to NBC News.
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