Earth flag

There is no one flag to represent Earth. Some organizations have promoted designs for a flag that represent the whole planet, yet none of these designs have managed to gain much recognition outside the organizations that propose them.

Earth Day Flag

A flag designed for the first Earth Day 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. Because of the political views of its creator and that is has become a symbol of Earth Day, this flag is also associated with environmental awareness, and the celebration of the global community.Fact|date=February 2008 It was offered for sale in the "Whole Earth Catalogue", and is currently by [http://www.earthflag.net Authentic Earth Flag] which is endorsed by John McConnell.

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

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 centre of the flag representing Earth, 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 [ [http://www.xs4all.nl/~carlkop/sagan.html Carl Sagan ] ] . Flag of Earth Co. International was also founded by Cadle which sold the flag. The Flag of Earth became public domain in 2003 [http://www.flagofearth.net/Cadle_Website.htm ] .

Other contenders

*Probably the "de facto" flag of the world is the Flag of the United Nations. 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 was used in place of the flag of the USA. [http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/_techrep/cr188251.html]

*Fibitz Reality Adjustment suggested a Flag for "Planet Terra" which represented the planet by a segment of a blue circle against a black background. A green and light blue band represent the atmosphere and a crescent moon is shown in the canton [http://www.madpoetry.org/terraflg.html]

*David Bartholomew’s "One World Flag" consists of a blue and green Taijitu (similar to that used in the flag of South Korea. The flag has a border of white, black, red and yellow, with one colour per side. [http://flagspot.net/flags/qp-3-owf.html]

*George Dibbern’s "citizen of the world" flag is different from most proposed flags in that it contains nationalist and religious symbols. On a white field is a red cross (St George's Cross), behind which is a blue circle. A blue star is in the canton. [http://flagspot.net/flags/qp-3dib.html]

*The World Service Authority has also designed a World Citizen flag with a green and white globe in the centre with a green man on a yellow field. [http://www.worldgovernment.org/wcd.html] The World Service Authority is perhaps best known for its issuing of World Passports.

*Jean-Sylvain Delroux's world flag was designed in 1970. It represents Earth in the same way as James W. Cadle's "Flag of Earth", but instead of showing the sun and moon, the rest of the flag is divided into four colours to represent the four families of humanity. [http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/worldflag.html] It was published in the French magazine "La Vie".

*The World Unity Flag Project's World Unity Flag has a multi-coloured flag superimposed with a picture of earth in the centre. The image for Earth is the same Blue Marble image used in the Earth Day Flag. [http://www.worldunityflag.org/]

Earth Flags in Science Fiction

*In "Futurama", the flag of Earth, known as Ol' Freebie, has a picture of Earth replacing the stars on an otherwise unaltered American flag.
*In "", a white flag with an image of Earth in blue (not too dissimilar to that of the UN) is shown.
*In the "Looney Tunes" cartoons, a plain yellow flag with an image of earth is used, a similar flag is used for Mars.
*In the cartoon "Invader Zim", a white flag with a colour representation of Earth is used.
*In "Gundam", a red flag with a plant is used; the flower on the plant is a blue circle representing Earth, with a white crescent on it. The moon is also shown.
*In the sequal Gundam Wing, a red flag with a gold disc is used. The disc is surrounded by olive leaves, similar to the flag of the UN. Another flag in the same series shows a gold bird in the centre.
*In "", a white flag with a blue image of Earth and three blue stars is used to represent the UN, and hence, Earth.
*H. G. Wells's novel "The Holy Terror" has the Flag of Scotland made to represent Earth. [http://flagspot.net/flags/qp-3.html#top]

Gallery of proposed flags

ee also

*Ecology Flag (American)
*Flag of the United Nations

References

External links

* [http://flagspot.net/flags/qp-3.html Flags of the World]
* [http://www.earthflag.net Authentic Earth Flag Website] Official Website
* [http://www.earthsite.org/flag.htm Authentic Earth Flag Endorsement] John McConell's Endorsement of earthflag.net as the Authentic Earth Flag.
* [http://members.aol.com/TrusteeOne/essay27.html The History of the Earth Flag] by John McConnell
* [http://www.flagofearth.net/Cadle_Website.htm Portions of James Cadle's "Flag of Earth" website]
* [http://www.allstates-flag.com/fotw/flags/qp-3-jwc.html James Cadle's "Flag of Earth" description]