Flag of the Earth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Earth flag)

Jump to: navigation, search

The Earth Day Flag, the latest proposal of John McConnell for a flag of Earth

The flag of the Earth is a flag used to represent the Earth. Though there is no internationally agreed upon flag to represent the whole planet, some individuals and organizations have promoted designs for a flag; however, none of these designs have managed to gain much broad recognition.

[edit] World peace flag

The Universal Peace Congress developed a flag of "the earth on a blue field covered with white stars" to be used as a peace flag.^[1]

James William van Kirk, a minister from Youngstown (Ohio, USA), designed this peace flag with rainbow stripes, stars and the globe. He made in 1913 and 1929 with this flag a peace tour through Europe.^[2]

[edit] Earth Day Flag

A flag designed for the first Earth Day (1969) by John McConnell is a dark blue field charged with The Blue Marble, a famous NASA photo of the Earth as seen from outer space^{[dubious – discuss]}.

Because of the political views of its creator and its having become a symbol of Earth Day, this flag is also associated with environmental awareness, and the celebration of the global community.^{[citation needed]} It was offered for sale in the Whole Earth Catalog, which is currently endorsed by John McConnell.^[3] The image of the Earth on the flag is public domain and the copyright on the flag design was invalidated in 2001.^[4]

The first Earth flag used screen-printing and the colors of the Earth were reversed: the ocean was white and the clouds were blue. With only two colors, one color was for clouds and the other color was for both ocean and land. This image of a later Earth flag shows the correct colors.

[edit] James W. Cadle's "Flag of Earth"

Another Earth flag was created around the same time in 1970 by a farmer from Illinois named James W. Cadle. Cadle's version of the Earth flag consists of a blue circle representing Earth in the center of the flag, a segment of a large yellow circle representing the sun and a small white circle for the moon, all on a black background. It is particularly popular amongst SETI researchers and is used by SETI worldwide. It was flown half staff when Carl Sagan died.^[5] Flag of Earth Co. International was also founded by Cadle which sold the flag. The Flag of Earth became public domain in 2003.^[6]

[edit] Other contenders

The Flag of the United Nations has been used to indicate world unity, although it technically only represents the United Nations itself. It has a geographical representation of the planet, and its high visibility usage makes it a well-known contender for representing Earth. Indeed, during the planning for NASA's moon landings of the 1960s, it was suggested that a UN flag be used in place of the flag of the US.^[7]