A post featuring a screenshot of a news report is being shared on social media claiming that ‘the Spanish Meteorological Department has confessed that Spain is being sprayed with Lead dioxide, silver iodide, and diatomite to manipulate the weather conditions.’ Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: The Spanish Meteorological Department has confessed that Spain is being sprayed with Lead dioxide, silver iodide, and diatomite to manipulate weather conditions.
Fact: This news has been in circulation since 2021. There is no evidence that Spanish authorities have confirmed that Spain is being sprayed with chemtrails. In 2015, the European Parliament clarified that there was no evidence supporting the allegations of a military geoengineering scheme to alter the climate in Spain. Besides, the commission clarified that neither existing nor proposed EU legislation includes any programs, policies, or activities that promote geoengineering by stratospheric aerosol or other forms of aerial aerosol spraying. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Upon conducting a relevant keyword search, it was found that this article has been in circulation since 2021. The article mentions that “on 19 May 2015, Member of the European Parliament Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (ALDE) announced in the European Parliament that four workers from the State Meteorological Agency had confessed that Spain was being sprayed with lead dioxide, silver iodide, and diatomite from airplanes to manipulate weather conditions for tourism and agricultural interests. He alleged adverse effects on regions like Murcia, the Valencian Community, and Almería, causing prolonged droughts, intense cold drops, and respiratory issues.” However, no credible reports indicating that Spanish authorities have made such statements were found in our research.
In subsequent research, it was found on the European Parliament website in 2015, a Spanish Member of the European Parliament (MEP) raised a question, stating, “Four employees of Spain’s Meteorological Agency have confessed that Spain is being sprayed nationwide by aircraft that are spreading lead dioxide, silver iodide, and diatomite through the atmosphere. What is the Commission’s view of this situation?” The European Commission responded, “Having investigated the matter with the Spanish authorities, the Commission found no evidence supporting the allegations of a military geoengineering scheme to alter the climate in Spain.”
Besides, the commission also answered the question raised in 2014 by confirming that neither existing nor proposed EU legislation includes any programs, policies, or activities that promote geoengineering by stratospheric aerosol or other forms of aerial aerosol spraying. A representative from Spain’s state meteorological agency informed the Spanish fact-checker Newtral that no meteorologist affiliated with their agency had confirmed the conspiracy theory regarding ‘chemtrails.’
The post also claims that many believe that condensation trails left by high-altitude aeroplanes are “chemtrails,” and that these contain undisclosed chemical or biological agents which cause climate modification. Contrary to this, these trails, also known as contrails, are created when the hot water vapour emitted by a jet engine after combustion cools and condenses in Earth’s atmosphere.
To sum up, the Spanish Meteorological Agency has not confessed that Spain is being sprayed with chemtrails from planes.
