Humanists take a break from God and grapple with ‘bad science’

Malta’s humanist association has entered the fray of a minor controversy, taking to task claims by an environmental NGO, the Gaia Foundation, over airliner and jet engine contrails left in the Maltese airspace.

The MHA, usually occupied with matters where faith and religion seeps in through the cracks of the scientific edifice, have declared that there are “no such things as chemtrails – the trails in the sky are formed of water condensation from the combustion of fuel in the jet engine. There are many valid concerns about the environment and mankind’s effect on it, but this is not one of them.”

According to the Gaia Foundation, led by Rudolph Ragonesi, chemtrails are white trails of chemicals sprayed by aircraft as they pass overhead, allegedly to “control the weather.”

But the MGA said the water vapour contrail from aircraft exhaust was incorporating itself with the rest of the atmospheric water vapour, which it said was too minimal to cause any effect in the air resulting in cloud formation

“All engines that burn hydrocarbon fuel produce an exhaust that contains a lot of water vapour. We can see this in cars if the air is very cold – each exhaust pipe produces a white plume of steam that disappears after a while. Obviously a commercial passenger jet burns lots more fuel – around 2.5 tons of fuel per hour for an A320. This produces enough water vapour, which can form a condensation trail or ‘contrail’,” the MHA said.

For the water vapour to turn into condensation (droplets) the surrounding temperature must be very cold. This is why it’s very rare to see condensation forming during landing or take-off. At a higher altitude however, temperatures can drop to well below zero – ideal for condensation. At around -40°C or lower, the water from the exhaust not only condenses but freezes instantly, making the resulting cloud last much longer in the sky. This mostly happens in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere – between 8km and 12km altitude.