The 18 billion pounds of plastic that end up in the ocean each year are “just the tip of the iceberg,” the caption says.
National Geographic’s senior photo editor, Vaughn Wallace, shared the image of the cover — created by Mexican artist Jorge Gamboa — to Twitter on Wednesday.
It’s now going viral, with hundreds of people praising the publication for taking on the important topic in such a thought-provoking way:
National Geographic is launching a “Planet or Plastic?” campaign with the new issue, which aims to reduce global reliance on single-use plastics. As part of the initiative, National Geographic has swapped the magazine’s plastic wrappers in the U.S., United Kingdom and India for paper.
“Will eliminating a plastic magazine wrapper save the planet? Well, no. But it’s an example of the kind of relatively easy action that every company, every government, and every person can take,” wrote editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg.
“And when you put it together, that adds up to real change,” she added.