Shifting Baselines Blog

2/17 - Why Hasn't "The Ocean Crisis" Made the Cover of Time Magazine?

In January, 2003, when we held our Roundtable Discussion, there was lots of talk about the upcoming Pew Oceans Report, being the most important landmark in ocean conservation in 30 years, probably putting "The Ocean Crisis," on the cover of Time Magazine. It's two years later. The oceans never made the cover of Time or Newsweek, in spite of both the Pew and U.S. Oceans Commission Reports. The answer offered for this among many ocean conservation communications folks was, "The oceans just can't compete with terrorism and other bigger items." But then why did endangered tigers make the cover of Time in March of last year (8/23/04)? And isn't that the same story they ran a decade earlier (3/28/94)?

Is the tiger crisis more important than the ocean crisis, or does it
just sell more copies?

And, gee, what a co-inky-dink: Could it be almost the same cover, a
decade earlier?

Posted by Randy Olson at February 17, 2005 11:45 AM