The Actual Problem with Airplane Contrails

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Last Updated on: 25th March 2025, 04:16 am

For some reason, there have been some wild conspiracy theories around airplane contrails for years, or decades even. Word gets around that nefarious hidden forces (most commonly “the government”) are spraying slow-killing poison on us via “chemtrails,” or secretly neutering us, and people believe it. A lot of people love to believe a scary, wild story about the depths the government will go through in order to make us suffer. I’ll be honest — I don’t get it.

Anyway, there actually is a big problem with aviation contrails. Transport & Environment has just put out an interactive presentation on them. Here’s the beginning of it (minus the fancy special effects):

“Aviation contributes to global warming by emitting carbon dioxide (CO₂) and currently accounts for around 2–3% of annual global CO₂ emissions. But on top of that, aircraft engines emit other gases as well as particulate matter that affect the climate and our health. These are called non-CO₂ emissions and are little known despite their huge impact on the environment. The climate impact of aviation’s non-CO₂ effects is at least as important as the impact of aviation’s CO₂ and could triple the climate impact of your next flight.

“The most famous of these non-CO₂ emissions are contrails. Contrails — the white lines we see behind planes — contribute disproportionately to aviation’s climate impact. Contrails form clouds that act like a giant blanket. They trap heat that would normally escape from Earth into space, adding to global warming.

“On top of the climate impact, pollutants such as soot, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides negatively impact air quality around airports — with consequences on people’s health.”

Read that interactive report for a much deeper dive into aviation contrails. It gets weird. Unfortunately, aviation contrails are a problem. They contribute to climate change, significantly. They are contributing to a deadly crisis; it’s just not the conspiracy theory some would like to believe.