An April 3 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a video of a blue sky with a white contrail streaking across it.
"Blocking the sun…AGAIN to protect us from 'climate change,'" reads the post's caption. "Thanks to the US Air Force and Navy for keeping us safe from the sun."
It also contains the hashtags "#chemtrails" and "#geoengineering."
The post was liked over 100 times in one week. Similar claims have received hundreds of additional likes and shares.
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Chemtrails do not exist. The white streak in the sky shown in the video is an airplane contrail. An expert told USA TODAY that airplane contrails would not be effective at mitigating climate change.
Airplane contrails, or the white streaks of water vapor left in the sky from planes, have been the subject of conspiracy theories for decades.
Some believe they are made up of chemicals purposefully sprayed on the public by nefarious actors, but this concept is baseless and has been repeatedly debunked.
"Contrails are simply water clouds resulting from jet exhaust," Alan Robock, a climate science professor at Rutgers University who studies geoengineering, said in an email to USA TODAY.
Dave Fahey, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chemical sciences laboratory,...
A short video circulating widely on social media claims that US Representative Ilhan Omar referred to World War II as “World War 11” while discussing the Alien Enemies Act. The clip has been share...