Post uses fabricated Time covers to misrepresent magazine's climate coverage | Fact check

The claim: Image shows 'global cooling' and 'global warming' Time magazine covers

A March 18 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows what appear to be eight Time magazine covers. "Global Cooling" is written above four labeled as being from the 1970s with winter imagery, and "Global Warming" is written about four with more recent dates that focus on rising temperatures.

"Keep the sheep in a panic at all times for total control," reads the post's caption.

The post garnered more than 100 shares in two days. Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: Altered

Two of the covers shown in the post are digitally fabricated, and none of the legitimate covers mention "global cooling."

Post includes digitally fabricated, unrelated magazine covers

The post's implication that Time transitioned from warning about a phenomenon of "global cooling" to "global warming" in recent decades is false.

To start, neither of the magazine issues titled "The Big Freeze" mention climate change or the term "global cooling." The 1973 issue's cover story focused on an American energy crisis caused by an Arab oil embargo, while the 1977 cover referred to record-low temperatures and an unprecedented level of snow in the winter of 1976-1977.

The third cover in the image, titled "How to Survive the Coming Ice Age," was debunked as a fabrication by Time back in 2013. The text about the ice age was digitally added to a cover focused on global warming, according to the magazine's debunk. The real issue, published in April 2007 (not 1977), used the headline, "The Global Warming Survival Guide: 51 Things You Can Do to Make a Difference."

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The final cover of the first row, depicting a group of people huddled around a fire, is legitimate but not about "global cooling." Rather, the December 1979 cover story was about Americans reverting back to wood-burning stoves to heat their homes amid an energy crisis sparked by the Iranian revolution.

The first three covers that center around global warming are also legitimate.

But like the digitally edited ice age cover, the last issue shown in the post isn't authentic. Time's online vault shows that none of the covers published in July 2007, when the Facebook post claims the cover was published, mention global warming. They instead focused on John F. Kennedy, Rupert Murdoch, the Democratic party and the Iraq War.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Reuters also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

• Time, Dec. 3, 1973, SHORTAGES: A Time of Learning to Live with Less

• Time, Jan. 31, 1977, WEATHER: The Big Freeze

• Time, Sept. 9, 2019, Sorry, a TIME Magazine Cover Did Not Predict a Coming Ice Age

• Time, Dec. 24, 1979, The Cooling of America

• Time, Oct. 19, 1987, Greenhouse Effect

• Time, April 9, 2001, Global Warming

• Time, April 3, 2006, Global Warming: Be Worried. Be Very Worried

• Time, accessed March 20, Year: 2007

• Time, Dec. 24, 1979, The Cooling of America | Dec. 24, 1979

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No 'global cooling' or 'ice age' covers published by Time | Fact check