FACT CHECK: Did Time Magazine Publish This Cover in 1977?

Elias Atienza | Senior Reporter

An image shared on Facebook claims to show a Time Magazine cover from April 1977 about how to survive the “upcoming Ice Age.”

Verdict: False

The image is digitally altered. Time did not publish any such cover in 1977.

Fact Check:

Representatives from nearly 200 nations gathered in Egypt for the United Nations COP27 climate summit, which ended with rich countries agreeing to pay developing nations for climate change damage, according to The New York Times. The U.S. is also paying $25 million to three tribes that were found to be threatened by climate change, the outlet reported.

The Facebook image claims to show a cover from Time Magazine, with a penguin on an iceberg, about “The Coming Ice Age.” The alleged cover reads, ‘How To Survive The Coming Ice Age: 51 Things You Can Do to Make a Difference.”

This claim, however, is false. Time Magazine wrote articles in 2013, 2017 and 2019 debunking the claim that it ever published the cover. The image has been circulating online before the 2013 Time Magazine article debunked it. (RELATED: Did Time Magazine Name Joe Biden And Kamala Harris’ The Most Unpopular Duo’?)

“Apparently the hoax cover has been floating around the Internet for at least a few years,” Bryan Walsh, TIME’s former International editor, wrote in 2013. “I’m not sure who created it, and it doesn’t seem to have gotten a whole lot of traction, even among climate-science deniers. Though kudos to whoever initially put the fake cover together. That’s some pretty good photoshopping.”

A search of Time Magazine’s vault shows that there were not any covers with that headline in 1977. The Facebook image is altered from a 2008 Time Magazine titled “The Global Warming Survival Guide: 51 Things You Can Do to Make a Difference” and has the same penguin image.

This is not the first time a false cover has been attributed to the magazine. Check Your Fact recently debunked an image allegedly showing a cover with British Home Secretary Suella Braverman with Nazi iconography.

Elias Atienza

Senior Reporter
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