April 22nd is Earth Day, a day for celebrating our home planet and committing to help protect it and fix the damage we've done to our environments. There are a number of flags related to environmentalism, as well as several proposals for flags for the planet itself. Let's take a look!
The most widespread flag for the Planet Earth, and the flag most commonly associated with Earth Day specifically, is a dark blue banner charged with a picture of the earth--usually NASA's The Blue Marble, although earlier flags used different images. The flag was designed in 1969 by John McConnell, an activist influential in organizing the first Earth Day in San Francisco, California. McConnell would go on to found the Earth Day Foundation and encourage the use of the flag on Earth Day. For this reason, this flag is widely associated with the holiday in particular.
McConnell poses with the Earth Day flag at his home in Denver, Colorado, in 2008. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
In 1969, Ron Cobb published his idea for a symbol for ecology--the letters e and o, standing for environment and organism respectively, superimposed on one another, forming a Greek letter theta. The theta is associated with the Greek word thanatos, meaning death, a reminder of the threats posed by humans to the environment, and of humankind's responsibility to minimize those threats.
The next year, Jack Shepherd, senior editor of Look magazine, incorporated this symbol into a flag. Based visually on the flag of the United States, the flag has thirteen green and white stripes. The green represents unspoiled land, and white symbolizes clean air.
The flag was most widespread in the 1970s, although it sees continued usage today.
Left: Students carry the ecology flag through downtown Chicago, Illinois, on Earth Day 1970. Source: headlineclub.org.
Right: The ecology flag flown at the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., 2017. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
In 1970, Illinois farmer James Cadle designed a flag to represent the planet Earth. It shows a simplified representation of the solar system, with the sun, earth and moon visible as yellow, blue, and white circles respectively, on a black field.
The flag is particularly popular among scientists involved in the search for extraterrestrial life, and flies at many such research facilities around the world.
The Flag of Earth flying at half-mast in memory of Carl Sagan at Ohio State University's "Big Ear" radio observatory, August 1997. Source: flagofearth.com.
International Flag of the Planet Earth (Pernefeldt Flag)
In 2015, Swedish graphic design student Oskar Pernefeldt designed a flag to represent the planet Earth. It is a blue flag charged with seven interconnected white rings. These symbolize the interconnectedness of life on Earth, and their number indicates the seven continents and the seven seas. Together they appear to form a flower.
This flag has seen much support since its inception, and is currently the most widespread flag for Earth aside from McConnell's Earth Day flag.
Left: the flag planted at the South Pole. Right: Jane Goodall with the flag in New York City. Source: flagofplanetearth.com.
