USA TODAY
-WILLIAM THOMAS
RESPONSE
-CORRECTION
Clifford E Carnicom
Mar 15 2001
An article published by USA Today on Mar 07 2001 follows at the bottom of this page.
A statement by William Thomas is posted by request. This statement does require a correction in order to accurately characterize the results of my work, as is denoted below with an asterisk, with the substitution of the word CLOUDS instead of the word contrails. I have, in the past, presented studies involving contrail dissipation and cloud formation; studies in progress related to contrail formation have not yet been published. This correction has been relayed to William Thomas.
Clifford E Carnicom
Mar 15 2001
The statement issued by William Thomas is as follows :
“As a professional journalist for more than 30 years I am deeply angered and embarrassed by this story which recently appeared in one of America’s most influential newspapers. After speaking with Clifford Carnicom and other veteran chemtrail researchers, Traci Watson interviewed me for more than an hour. My extensive documentation must have been too convincing to include in a dismissive article that is 100% accurate concerning contrails – and 100% disinformation regarding the sky-filled reality of chemtrails.
Most telling of all, I suggested that Ms. Watson call Clifford Carnicom back and ask for his U.S. government meteorological data showing that on days of intense aerial gridding over Sante Fe, New Mexico the temperature and humidity at the altitudes aircraft were observed spreading thick plumes made the formation of contrails* [CLOUDS] absolutely impossible.
In choosing to ignore the facts while pursuing a blatant editorial agenda, Ms. Watson has disgraced her readers and her craft.“
Sincerely,
William Thomas
CONTACT USA TODAY
Anyone wishing to contact Traci Watson in a respectful manner regarding her article
can send a brief email to this senior reporter at: twatson@usatoday.com
The USA Today toll-free number is: (800) 872-3410
From USA TODAY
March 7, 2001
Conspiracy theorists read between lines in the sky
By Traci Watson
A new conspiracy theory sweeping the Internet and radio talk shows has set parts of the federal government on edge. The theory: The white lines of condensed water vapor that jets leave in the sky, called contrails, are actually a toxic substance the government deliberately sprays on an unsuspecting populace.
Federal bureaucracies have gotten thousands of phone calls, e-mails and letters in recent years from people demanding to know what is being sprayed and why. Some of the missives are threatening. It’s impossible to tell how many supporters these ideas have attracted, but the people who believe them say they’re tired of getting the brush-off from officials. And they’re tired of health problems they blame on ”spraying.”
”This is blatant. This is in your face,” says Philip Marie Sr., a retired nuclear quality engineer from Bartlett, N.H., who says the sky above his quiet town is often crisscrossed with ”spray” trails. ”No one will address it,’’ he says. ”Everyone stonewalls this thing.”
The situation Marie and others describe is straight out of The X-Files. He and others report one day looking up at the sky and realizing that they were seeing abnormal contrails: contrails that lingered and spread into wispy clouds, multiple contrails arranged in tick-tack-toe-like grids or parallel lines, contrails being laid down by white planes without registration numbers.
Believers call these tracks ”chemtrails.” They say they don’t know why the chemicals are being dropped, but that doesn’t stop them from speculating. Many guess that the federal government is trying to slow global warming with compounds that reflect sunlight into the sky. Some propose more ominous theories, such as a government campaign to weed out the old and sick. Exasperated by persistent questions, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration joined forces last fall to publish a fact sheet explaining the science of contrail formation. A few months earlier, the Air Force had put out its own fact sheet, which tries to refute its opponents’ arguments point by point.
”If you try to pin these people down and refute things, it’s, ‘Well, you’re just part of the conspiracy,’ ” says atmospheric scientist Patrick Minnis of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. ”Logic is not exactly a real selling point for most of them.” Nothing is ”out there” except water vapor and ice crystals, say irritated scientists who study contrails. Some, such as Minnis, are outraged enough by the claims of chemtrail believers that they have trolled Internet chat rooms to correct misinformation or have gotten into arguments with callers.
”Conspiracy nonsense,” snorts Kenneth Sassen, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah. ”These things are at 30,000 to 40,000 feet in the atmosphere. They’re tiny particles. They’re not going to affect anyone.”
The cloud-forming contrails that conspiracy theorists find so ominous are ”perfectly natural,” Minnis says. The odd grid and parallel-line patterns are easily explained as contrails blown together by the wind, scientists say.
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