Debunked: "Partly Cloudy" 1990/2014 Photo Comparison [Actually 2011/2012]

[Mick West]

This image has been making the rounds on Facebook for a while, with over 10,000 shares:

https://www.facebook.com/WhyInTheWo...13446.461672990517689/796589093692742/?type=1

It claims to show a comparison between two days forecast as "Partly Cloudy" from 1990 and 2014, to illustrate how much the skies have changed due to "chemtrails".

Unfortunately it shows nothing of the sort. The photos are actually from 2011 and 2012, and from totally different places: Long Island, New York, and London, England.

http://nextwaveny.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/cool-notes-on-a-hot-day/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...-the-day-11-September-2012.html?frame=2335733

Really what we have here is just cherry picking. Some days have lots of contrails, some days have none. Some days have high altitude clouds like cirrus, some have more low altitude like cumumlus. Here's the weather around Kew Bridge last week, May 20th, 2014.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/grange85/14224914281/in/photostream/

And here's the day before:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/grange85/14041634787/in/photostream/

And the week before that:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/grange85/14175626064/in/photostream/

The weather is not changing with "Chemtrails". Just some days you get contrails, and some days you do not. If you look at the supposed 1994 location, the Long Island. Most of the photos you see in recent years will be nice blue skies. The "Chemtrail" theorists are used to seeing contrails in photos, because they constantly seek them out. But there really aren't that many.
https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=peconic river

(image from 2012)

 

[Pete Tar]

What's the best way to find the first use and originator of the image?
Google image gave me this twitter link
https://twitter.com/EquilMedia
From 29th of April
which then had a retweeted post

from the 6th
of April for the earliest use, but is this an accurate search?
Tineye returned no results.

 

[Mick West]

GIS and Tin Eye are pretty much all I use for search tools. Although I recognized the Kew Bridge photo from:
http://contrailscience.com/how-far-away-is-that-contrail/

The Kew photo has been knocking around for a while in the chemtrail groups, as it's so dramatic.

 

[vooke]

Mick,
Where do you draw your passion from, were you a CTer?

 

[Mick West]

Mick,
Where do you draw your passion from, were you a CTer?

Just a long standing interest. I was more a Jesus and UFOs guy, 30 years ago. See:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/my-personal-history-of-debunking.1915/

 

[Pete Tar]

I was more a Jesus and UFOs guy

That's awesome.

 

[deirdre]

^^ ok that meditation position is such bunk, that never happened!

 

[cloudspotter]

A newer version of the comparison. The earliest version I've been able to find of the 'used to look like' is from August 2011

http://write-read-live.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/month-of-fundays-day-21-find-shapes-in.html

The image is available on Shutterstock but I'm not sure how old that image is

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-847...blue-sky.html?src=dpkHR5aT657cNjbsKfehiw-1-94

 

[Peter]

Well at least those comparisons imply that contrails are just clouds too.

 

[Mick West]

The second image there:

Is quite possibly older than the first. It dates back to at least 2008. It was used as the background for this:

 

[Spectrar Ghost]

The difference between the first (summer) picture's colors and the second (winter - notice the trees) picture's pallette is an interesting and subtle contrast. It reminds me of the before-and-after diet pictures where the person is frowning and the intensity is dialed down in the before, and smiling with the color intensity cranked up in the after.

 

[JRBids]

I just was taking a walk on the riverfront today and remembered this thread. Here is a photo today of the same view as

the scene at the top.