Did former CIA Director John Brennan reveal that the U.S. government uses Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, a hypothetical geoengineering technology, to control the weather? No, that's not true: A full video of his 2016 speech shows that Brennan said no such thing. He was discussing his interest in technologies that could potentially reverse climate change; he did not say that these technologies were currently in use.
The claim that the U.S. government uses Stratospheric Aerosol Injection to control the weather surfaced in a post (archived here) on X on October 9, 2024. It was captioned:
Former CIA Director John Brennan
'One that has gained my personal attention is Stratospheric Aerosol Injection' (aka Chemtrails)
'The technologies potential to altar Weather Patterns'
They tell you about it - what you didnt think they were already doing it? You can see it.
This is how the post looked on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 10 17:18:38 2024 UTC)
Stratospheric Aerosol Injection is not 'chemtrails' -- and 'chemtrails' are not a real thing
The caption of the X post suggests that Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) is a term synonymous with "chemtrails," and that "You can see it." This is incorrect.
"Chemtrails," based on the real-life word "contrails," do not exist. As Lead Stories has reported before, the word "chemtrails" is a conspiracy-theory term used to misidentify condensation trails or contrails. By misappropriating the regularly observed effects of visible condensation from air traffic, conspiracists incorrectly point to these white trails as "proof" of a nefarious government chemical spraying program. A fact sheet from the Environmental Protection Agency in conjunction with several government agencies explains why contrails form and why they remain visible for varying amounts of time:
Contrails are line-shaped clouds or 'condensation trails,' composed of ice particles, that are visible behind jet aircraft engines, typically at cruise altitudes in the upper atmosphere. Contrails have been a normal effect of jet aviation since its earliest days. Depending on the temperature and the amount of moisture in the air at the aircraft altitude, contrails evaporate quickly (if the humidity is low) or persist and grow (if the humidity is high). Jet engine exhaust provides only a small portion of the water that forms ice in persistent contrails. Persistent contrails are mainly composed of water naturally present along the aircraft flight path.
Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) is a theoretical geoengineering method. The Chemical Sciences Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), described SAI this way:
One such potential method of climate intervention, known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), aims to mimic the planet cooling effects of volcanic eruptions by injecting sulfur dioxide (SO2) directly into the stratosphere where it forms sunlight-reflecting sulfate aerosols.
Brennan's speech
Brennan, then director of the CIA, spoke at a June 29, 2016, event hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations. The full C-SPAN video of his talk and a subsequent interview with Judy Woodruff, then "PBS News Hour" co-anchor, is just over an hour long.
The clip in the post on X comes from the end of Brennan's 15-minute-long speech on global security issues. It can be found between the 12:34 and 14:13 marks in the C-SPAN video.
In his speech, Brennan discussed various threats to global security, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, biotechnology and, finally, geoengineering. It is clear from the language Brennan used in the segment on geoengineering that he was speaking about something hypothetical that showed promise but had not yet occurred.
The caption of the X post excerpted two short quotes from the full context of his address. At 12:34 minutes into his speech Brennan speaks of the potential of one geo-engineering method which has captured his attention:
Another example is the array of technologies, often referred to collectively as geo-engineering, that potentially could help reverse the warming effects of global climate change. One that has gained my personal attention is stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI, a method of seeding the stratosphere with particles that can help reflect the sun's heat in much the same way that volcanic eruptions do.
After introducing some of the potential benefits that might be realized through SAI, Brennan then lists some of the potential drawbacks. At 13:44 minutes Brennan says:
On the geopolitical side, the technology's potential to alter weather patterns and benefit certain regions of the world at the expense of other regions could trigger sharp opposition by some nations. Others might seize on SAI's benefits and back away from their commitments to carbon dioxide reductions.
At no point does Brennan state that the government is conducting SAI experiments in Earth's stratosphere.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to geoengineering can be found here. Fact checks on claims related to the chemtrail conspiracy can be found here.
