The Origins of Chemtrails

In the late 1990s, theories began to circulate that there was some chemical substance secretly being dropped from airplanes. The first discussion of chemtrails can be traced back to an email sent by Richard Finke in 1997. He claimed a highly toxic pesticide was being added to jet fuel and dispersed in contrails. This was in the early days of the internet, when it was just becoming possible to spread information through online forums and chain emails. There was no Google or Wikipedia, and no easy way to fact check what you found online. People forwarded the message without even questioning whether the information was true.