Florida bill would ban 'chemtrails' and 'geoengineering.' But what are they?

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently said he'd sign into law a ban on "weather modification activities"-such as spreading tiny particles into the air from aircraft to control sunlight-it raised long-standing controversies over "geoengineering" and "chemtrails."

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The coming ban on weather modification may have good intentions, weather experts said this week, but it conflates legitimate geoengineering research with conspiracy theories about chemtrails-an unsubstantiated belief that chemicals spewed into the air, and even the familiar white streaks or contrails airplanes leave behind in the sky, could dangerously alter the weather and rain down toxic chemicals on an unsuspecting public.

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Geoengineering-also known as climate engineering-refers to large-scale efforts to combat climate change. That includes proposals to "suck carbon dioxide" out of the sky so the atmosphere will trap less heat or to fire small reflective aluminum particles into the air to act as mirrors and deflect the sun's rays away from Earth, according to a 2019 report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Initially discovered during the first high-altitude flights in the 1920s, contrails are created when hot air from a plane's engines condenses into ice crystals in the cold air. Their appearance and length of time in the sky depends on the temperature, humidity, wind speed and altitude, according to the National Weather Service. Some contrails last long enough for other planes to fly by creating crisscrossing lines.