From the perennial smog that makes Cairo give any city in China, India or Mexico a run for its money as the world's most polluted, to the infamous seasonal "black cloud" that mercilessly impairs the health of the victims it hovers above annually, Egypt's skies have long been beleaguered by one odious menace after another. The latest addition to these comes in the form of long trails of chemicals sprayed from the exhaust pipes of airplanes, now known as chemtrails. In contrast to contrails, the regular exhaust of airplanes which can be seen for about 30 seconds before they vaporize and disappear, chemtrails are thicker and denser, and can go up to a hundred kilometers before slowly dispersing over the course of a few hours into a stringy and nebulous suspended cloud. Their contents have been designed for weather control purposes, and were ostensibly created to combat global warming by reflecting the sun's heat back into space. However, its existence has been kept under the radar of international media, relegating it to the realm of myths invented by conspiracy theorists. However, chemtrails have been tarnishing Egyptian skies for over five years, and their disturbing consequences have already been seen. Those who doubt that weather modification technology has not only existed for decades, but grown in sophistication to alarming proportions, where deliberate manipulation of natural environmental processes can cause such phenomena as earthquakes, tidal waves, and changes in weather patterns, need only conduct a simple search on the Internet. In 1977, weather control, particularly hostile weather warfare, was addressed by the UN General Assembly in an environmental modification convention, signed in Geneva on 18 May, entering into force on 5 October, 1978, and ratified by US President Jimmy Carter on 13 December of the following year. The science of geoengineering, or climate engineering, founded by physicist and inventor Nikola Tesla a century ago for the control of the Earth's climatic factors, e.g., rains, winds, thunder and lightning, and low and high air pressure zones, has moved from the realm of science fiction to the pages of respectable scientific journals. Depending on the desired change, the different technological methods of geoengineering depend mostly on spreading certain chemical particles by planes or jets in the troposphere or stratosphere, the first and second layers of the Earth's atmosphere respectively. The most common method of geoengineering induces artificial precipitation by using airplanes to spray silver iodide and potassium perchlorite or liquid nitrogen in the troposphere directly over clouds. The sprayed chemical particles replace the natural fine dust in the troposphere and each particle acts as a precipitation nucleus on which water vapor in the clouds condenses. The water or ice particles that are formed can no longer be suspended in the air and fall to earth in the form of rain. Among the 24 countries that currently practice weather modification, including the US and Russia, China reportedly has the world's largest cloud seeding system, which it uses to increase rain over arid areas. Alongside the use of jets, it employs ground-based generators to fire silver iodide rockets into the sky where rain is desired. Major news networks reported on China's use of cloud seeding in Beijing to clear the air of pollution before the 2008 Olympic Games. Over the past two decades, researchers have intensified their efforts to counteract the "global warming" phenomenon, formerly termed "greenhouse warming" and now simply referred to as "climate change." International agreements in place intended to address this issue include the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, signed and ratified by almost every country in the world barring the US, which signed, but declined to ratify the treaty due to the high costs associated with lowering carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. The insufficiency of the Kyoto Protocol's emission reduction regime--along with the absence of a key participant and the lacking implementation amongst others, and the high costs involved and lack of incentives--cried out for an alternative. In 1991, climatologists David Shang and I Fu Chi working at the Hughes Aircraft Company--now the Hughes Aerospace Corporation-- received approval for their patent entitled “Stratospheric Welsbach Seeding for the Reduction of Global Warming.” Their technology relied on dispensing microscopic particles of aluminum oxide as reflective material (Welsbach particles) mixed with barium salts into the stratosphere. Aluminum oxide reflects one to two percent of the incoming sun's heat and light back into space, while the barium monoxide reacts with the carbon dioxide as it drops into the troposphere, turning into barium carbonate and bicarbonate, and minimizing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Arguably continuous application of this technology over several decades would lead to a significant decrease in the phenomenon of global warming. In 2000, the US called for an international gathering of climatologists under the umbrella of the UN-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to present the positive results gained from the application of this geoengineering technique over the entire North American continent from 1991 to 2000, which it claimed decreased the warming of the region by 70 to 80 percent. The US proposed “The Shield Project” as an effective global solution for the global warming phenomenon. The project would employ international flight companies and equip airplanes with the tanks and systems required to spray chemtrails, which would be released during the planes' standard and defined flight itineraries to cover the planet with this chemical shield. The project was priced at US$50 billion--US$1 billion per year for 50 years (2000-2050)--and the cost would be incurred by the US alone. The project was approved by the UN gathering after involving the World Health Organization (WHO) after many environmentalists expressed concern over the threat such chemicals could pose to human health. Once approved, its global application began over the Antarctic in 2000 to cool the region's atmosphere and decelerate the melting of the ice caps. In 2004, Monir el-Husseini, professor of environmental protection and director of the research park at Cairo University's Faculty of Agriculture at Cairo University, was the first to report on chemtrails reaching the Mediterranean and North Africa region, when he witnessed them himself. "The first time I noticed the chemtrails was on the first day of Eid el-Adha in late 2004 when I was vacationing in Ain el-Sokhna," says el-Husseini, "I woke up early and, looking out at the sea, noticed the planes spraying their white chemical trails in the sky in a crisscross pattern." Recognizing what he was witnessing because of his prior research into the topic, he quickly set up his camera and tripod and began documenting the trail and its dispersion in 15-minutes intervals. "These were the first photographs I took of the spraying," notes el-Husseini, "which is always intensive when covering a new area. The temperature dropped drastically over the course of the next six to seven hours, from 34 degrees Celsius to around 14 degrees, and relative humidity dropped from the average 65 percent to about 15 percent--which is unheard of in a location right off the coast--because of the dehydration in the atmosphere. Most people packed their things and left the beach." Ehab Abd el-Razaq, deputy head of the analysis center at the Egyptian Meteorological Authority, insists that the clearly visible phenomenon was nothing more than standard contrails of airplane exhaust, comprised of little more than water vapor and carbon dioxide. He attributes the length of the trails to the airplanes flying at high altitudes, where the temperatures are cooler. "The primary factor in how long the trails are and how long they take to disperse is the surrounding temperature of the atmosphere at the time," says el-Razaq, "when the temperature is cooler the trail becomes longer and more visible because it takes more time to evaporate." Mohamed Imam, general manager of environmental affairs at the Civil Aviation Authority, who was quick to note that airplane exhaust--mostly carbon and nitrogen oxides--constitutes a maximum of two percent of air pollution in the region, offered an alternative explanation: "The difference in the density of these trails is probably the result of the age and condition of the craft's engine. Only seven of Egypt Air's 43 planes are old, and we're working on modernizing them. The trails you're seeing probably belong to other airlines with poor quality engines. These airlines are issued warnings, and sometimes fined, by our authorities if they emit excessive pollution." Both el-Razaq and Imam state that Al-Masry Al-Youm's inquiries about chemtrails were the first instances of their kind in the history of their institutions. According to research compiled by el-Husseini, environmentalists and physicians have identified numerous risks and undesired consequences for human health, as well as the planet's resources, associated with this global geoengineering project. The most dangerous of these, he maintains, are the increased incidents of what are later reported as chance occurrences of lightning. The interaction of the chemical particles in chemtrails produce friction, which is blazed by the strong exhaust of the jet engines to produce large electric fields in the stratosphere. These fields drop down to the troposphere and can be discharged either naturally or by mobile phones and similar devices operating on ultra low frequencies. El-Husseini says this dynamic--along with dehydration of ecosystems resulting from chemtrails--accounts for the increased occurrences of forest fires, as seen in northern Australia in 2008, and California and Greece last year. It also explains local farmers being struck by lightning while out in open fields in the last two years. Regarding the latter, el-Husseini has collected front-page newspaper clippings of these freak occurrences. Among other reports, Al Ahram's educational supplement reported on the death of three farmers in Beheira on 14 April, 2007, a seasonally unlikely time for lightning, and on 18 May, 2009 Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on the death of a farmer in Sohag by a "fire from the sky," explained by one meteorologist in the article as a "meteorite." For el-Husseini the explanation is much simpler: The farmers activated their mobile phones at a time when the charged electric fields in the atmosphere caused by chemtrails had dropped dangerously close to the ground before dispersing sufficiently. "The most dangerous aspect [of chemtrails] is the lightning that can result from the charged atmosphere. People should not answer their mobile phone calls in open spaces," el-Husseini says, "And the new warning signs in gas stations requiring customers to switch off their mobile phones should really be heeded." Another consequence of the global application of chemtrails is the creation of new wind directions. The sudden cooling of the atmosphere over vast regions creates new low pressure zones. These "depression zones" induce new wind directions never experienced before in these regions. For el-Husseini, this explains another freak occurrence--the locust swarm that afflicted Egypt in 2004. A depression zone was created over the Mediterranean region when it was first sprayed with chemtrails that year, pulling in the autumn generation of desert locusts from West Africa to Algeria, Egypt, the Gulf peninsula, and even the southern islands of Italy and Greece. El-Husseini's argument would clarify why the locusts that swarmed Egypt were red instead of yellow--indicating an interrupted sexual maturity cycle that is only completed once they have reached the end of their migratory path. Ironically, although chemtrails were designed to cool the atmosphere they can also result in extreme heat waves. Once they reach the troposphere, the Welsbach aluminum oxide particles act as a double-sided mirror. They reflect the heat coming down from the sun back into space but also reflect the heat coming up from the ground from cars, air conditioners, factories, power stations, etc., back down to Earth. The heat waves which killed thousands of people in France in 2003 and in Greece in 2008 have begun to occur more frequently, notes el-Husseini. They have also resulted in losses in biodiversity, devastating plant and animal species accustomed to year-round stable temperatures. Hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes and floods will all be stronger and more frequent with the presence of chemtrails. When natural clouds reach the fine chemical particles that act as nuclei for precipitation, these processes will start immediately and forcefully. Chemtrails are an undeniable factor in the recent floods in the UK and continental Europe, according to el-Husseini, as well as the local flash floods that swept Arish, Aswan and Sharm el-Sheikh. Furthermore, the health problems resulting from the inhalation of precipitating aluminum oxide is a can of worms waiting to be opened. The health conditions associated with the aluminum and barium particles found in chemtrails include pneumonia-like respiratory symptoms, asthma, inflammation of binding tissues, various allergic reactions, as well as frequent headaches and depression. These particles also guide nanobacteria from the stratosphere to Earth. Stratospheric nanobacteria, proven recently to be a pathogenic living form, cause various calcification diseases, from gallbladder and kidney stones, to arteriosclerosis and the calcification of heart valves. "What concerns me is the lack of awareness of what's happening around us," says el-Husseini, who has been active in raising awareness about chemtrails. "I feel I have a duty to present these facts to the authorities, and to inform the man on the street without arousing his fear or driving him to futile angry protests," he says. From as early as 2004, in an attempt to provide a reasonable explanation for the locust swarm where other scientists could not, el-Husseini has been giving lectures and accompanying numerous scientific panels convening to explain such mysterious phenomena. He has, however, usually been faced with a wall of scoffs and dropped jaws. Authorities, often at a loss for meaningful accounts of such phenomena, have begun recognizing the value of his research and requesting that he give more talks, at least to other executives and professionals that need to be informed. He is scheduled to address radiation scientists at the national research center on 29 March, where he will outline the adverse effects of chemtrails. He hopes to encourage listeners to petition the relevant authorities to implement minimal protective measures, such as lightning protection systems for homes. For those who are interested in learning more about the topic, professor Monir el-Husseini will be giving a presentation at the Egyptian Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center in Nasr City on 7 April at 10 AM. For inquiries, readers should contact the center at (202) 2792-9292.
