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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then National Geographic’s poignant June magazine cover is worth at least a hundred thousand.
The iconic yellow frame borders a picture of an enormous iceberg — or what initially looks like an iceberg, but is actually a plastic bag submerged in the ocean. The cover reads, “Planet or Plastic?” and it has all of social media astounded.
Photo Credit: Twitter
The caption, both a statistic and a pun, explains that “The 18 billion pieces of plastic that end up in the ocean each year are just the tip of the iceberg.” It is a powerful reminder of the ruinous toll plastics are taking on the Earth.
National Geographic’s senior photo editor, Vaughn Wallace, shared the image of the cover to his Twitter Wednesday. Created by Mexican artist Jorge Gamboa, it quickly made its way around the web as thousands voiced their appreciation for the thoughtful way in which NatGeo addressed the issue.
The consensus seemed to be that this was one of the magazine’s best covers, ever.
Photo Credit: Twitter
Wallace’s initial tweet garnered over 90,000 likes and almost 45,000 retweets in less than two days’ time. Gamboa’s artwork, titled Iceberg Plástico, was initially submitted to Bolivia’s Biennial of Poster in 2017, where it grabbed first place in the political and social posters category.
According to NatGeo spokesperson Leah Jereb, Gamboa was inspired by an actual plastic bag full of water. “He noticed one day that when the bag was partially filled with water, it took on a mountainous shape that resembled an iceberg or glacier,” said Jereb. “To expand on this concept, Gamboa began photographing bags lit by a lamp, and that process eventually turned into this concept.”
Packaged with the June issue is NatGeos’ new Planet or Plastic? campaign, which sees the magazine dropping the plastic bags that have long wrapped delivered issues. Editor-in-Chief Susan Goldberg says this will save 2.5 million single-use plastic bags every month.
