On May 14 2019, a Facebook user shared the following post (archived here), purporting to show “cow fart bags” advocated as a climate change solution by “fringe leftists”:
It was almost as if a post lamenting that “you can’t make this stuff up” was a clue that the poster had indeed made that stuff up. A caption claimed:
I wish this was a joke but fringe leftist are now advocating for cow fart bags to capture farts as a way to help prevent “global warming.” You can’t make this stuff up folks. ????
Commenters bought the claim hook, line, and sinker, weighing in with their opinions on the purported cow flatulence backpacks:
Just like a Leftist. Most farmers don’t own only one or two cows. How would this be practical for someone who has 50 head? Or 150 head of cattle? Not all “cows” are gentle. How do they propose to strap these on to bulls?
Also, apparently cattle ranchers have an inordinate amount of free time on their hands. But then farming is SOO easy, right?Can we rig up some kind of device to capture all of the HOT AIR escaping from Congress and recycle that some way? What we really need are new inventions and ideas that have never been thought of or created before. (AOC actually said that).
So what do they do with the bags when they are full?? The advocators take it home to get high for free!! Lol
What do they propose to do with the methane gas after it is harvested? Indefinitely store it? Use it for fuel?(global warming) or set it free in outer space? ????????????
Although commenters had a lot to say about the impracticality of the idea presented, few — if any —checked to see if the claim was at all legitimate. As it turns out, the image shared on Facebook in May 2019 was not the work of “fringe leftists” and their “cow fart bags.”
The image of a cow with a red bag on its back first appeared in two July 2008 Inhabitat posts, one of which was an image gallery. The other was a brief article about the events shown in the “cow fart bags” images:
ere at Inhabitat we pride ourselves in bringing you the freshest eco-friendly innovations, so how could we pass on the merits of this bright pink burp-trapping bovine backpack? It’s more than just a catchy concept — believe it or not there’s real SCIENCE at work here! The methane collecting tanks were utilized by Argentina’s National Institute for Agricultural Technology as part of a a study to determine the atmospheric impact of methane released by cows. The findings were startling, as researcher Guillermo Berro estimated that “30% of Argentina’s total greenhouse gases could be generated by cattle.”
These “cow fart bags” pictures were at least a decade old by the time someone attempted to reappropriate them in order to claim on Facebook that “fringe leftists” sought to use them to inhibit climate change. In the original article, Inhabitat explained that the “methane collecting tanks” were used as part of a study aiming to measure — not eliminate — methane generated by bovine populations. The scientists were not “fringe leftists” attempting to “prevent ‘global warming,'” and the Facebook claim was entirely false.