Despite the lack of "official" information on the phenomenon known as chemtrails, plenty of scientists, journalists, researchers and ordinary citizens have created an alternative media buzz about the spraying of chemicals that can be seen on most days. According to www.globalengineeringwatch.org, "The program appeared to go ‘online' around 1997; though sightings of short-lived aerosol spray cloud construction goes back to the 1970s. Whistleblowers and discovered documents have indentified the chemtrail program as Icarus, Deep Shield, Shield project and Project Cloverleaf. Now the government is calling it geoengineering."

"Geoengineering is the artificial modification of earth's climate systems through two primary ideologies, solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal." Check out this site for a diagram of geoengineering: www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2008/images/geoengineering_diagram_big.jpg.

The theory is that by putting "reflective nano-materials" in the stratosphere it will reflect sunlight back into space and prevent the escalation of global warming.

The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine and published a study in 2000 on greenhouse gasses, global warming, policy decisions and mitigations. Called "Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming: Mitigation, Adaptation, and the Science Base, the study states in part, "...the most effective global warming mitigation turned out to be the spraying of reflective aerosol compounds into the atmosphere utilizing commercial, military and private aircraft."

According to the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Science Program (www.asp.bnl.gov), "The current focus of the program is aerosol radiative forcing of climate..."

Despite the controversial nature of the issue, there is plenty of thought-provoking information to consider the issue seriously, especially if paying attention to the sky leads to the question, "What in the world are they spraying," which is the title of a new documentary on chemtrails and geoengineering.

Doing a search of patents and companies involved in weather modification provides plenty of confirming information. Weather Modification, Inc. states on its web site, "Weather modification is commonly known as cloud seeding, cloud modification, atmospheric resource management, and precipitation management. Specifically we offer a complete range of services ... for rainfall increase, snow pack augmentation, hail suppression, and fog clearing."

Another popular theory that might have some basis in fact is that government is trying to control the weather for warfare activities. A well-known 52-page research document titled, "Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025" was commissioned by the Air Force. With such statements as: "A high-risk, high-reward endeavor, weather-modification offers a dilemma not unlike splitting the atom. While some segments of society will always be reluctant to examine controversial issues such as weather-modification, the tremendous military capabilities that could result from this field are ignored at our own peril." The paper makes a case for controlling the climate for war.

"In the United States, weather modification will likely become a part of national security policy with both domestic and international applications."

Chief among the concern of those who believe that a spraying program is in progress and reports from biologists around the country are directed at the high rate (thousands of times over government standards) of aluminum, barium and strontium that has been found in the environment.

The following information was found from several different company web sites that handle aluminum:

"The uptake of aluminum can take place through food, through breathing and by skin contact. Long lasting uptakes of significant concentrations of aluminum can lead to serious health effects, such as: damage to the central nervous system, dementia, loss of memory, listlessness, severe trembling, pulmonary fibrosis and lung damage."

Despite the lack of communication with the public over the chemtrail issue, watching the skies and asking, what in the world are they spraying is an issue that won't go away anytime soon.

Reach the reporter at kwarnick@wmicentral.com