The flag of Earth is a concept of a possible flag design meant to symbolize the planet

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...

kind, or a possible

world government World government is the concept of a single political authority with jurisdiction over all humanity. It is conceived in a variety of forms, from tyrannical to democratic, which reflects its wide array of proponents and detractors. A world gove ...

Proposed flags

Earth Flag

In 1969, peace activist John McConnell proposed his design titled the ''Earth Flag''. The current version of the flag consists of ''

The Blue Marble ''The Blue Marble'' is an image of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, from a distance of around from the planet's surface. Taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon, it is one of the most reproduced images in history ...

'', a photograph of Earth taken on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 on its way to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. The planet is placed on the dark blue background. Prior to 1973, the flag design used the photography no. 69HC487, taken by the crew of the

Apollo 10 Apollo 10 (May 18–26, 1969) was a human spaceflight, the fourth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, and the second (after Apollo8) to orbit the Moon. NASA described it as a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing, and ...

on 18 May 1969. The early flag versions also had more simplified designs, depicting white outlines of the clouds, on the light blue circle, instead of more detailed photography of the planet. John McConnell:
The History of the Earth Flag
'. In: ''The Flag Bulletin'', March/April 1982.Weir: ''Peace, Justice, Care of Earth''. Press On Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0-9717491-2-4. The design debuted at the Moon Watch event in the

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

, in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, on 20 July 1969, during which, people watched and celebrated the first

Moon landing A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959. The United S ...

done by the crew of the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...

. On 22 April 1970, McConnell organized the first Earth Day, in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

at which his flags were used. Since then, the flag has become widely associated with Earth Day. Soviet

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Anatoly Berezovoy Anatoly Nikolayevich Berezovoy (russian: Анато́лий Никола́евич Березово́й; 11 April 1942 – 20 September 2014) was a Soviet cosmonaut. Biography Berezovoy was born in Enem, Adyghe Autonomous Oblast, Russian SFSR ...

carried the Earth Flag with him during his time in space.

International Flag of Planet Earth

In 2015, designer Oskar Pernefeldt proposed a flag called the ''International Flag of Planet Earth''. The design consists of seven rings, linked to each other. It include one circle in the middle, and six circles around it, forming a shape of a flower. The shape represents the life on the planet, and the connection of everything on it, to everything else. The number of circles represents seven continents of the planet. The symbol is placed on a dark blue background, which represents water, the essential of the planet's life, and the oceans, that cover most of the surface of Earth. Additionally, the outer rings together form a circle, representing Earth, with the blue background, representing the universe. The aspect ratio of the height of the flag to its width equal 2:3. Oskar Pernefeldt designed the flag as a graduate thesis, but the flag quickly became popular internationally. The website Penerfeldt created for the flag received more than half a million views in its first 24 hours, and it received significant media attention. Many outlets speculated about the design's use in space travel, particularly humans reaching Mars.

James W. Cadle's Flag of Earth

In 1970, James W. Cadle, a farmer from

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, proposed his version of the flag of Earth, that consisted of a blue circle representing the Earth, placed in the centre of the flag, in front of a segment of a larger yellow circle, representing the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, placed on the left side of the map, and a smaller white circle, representing the

, located in the right bottom corner of the flag, with everything placed on a black background. It gained popularity among the

SETI The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other pl ...

researchers and is flown of numerous SETI research facilities around the world. Notably, the flag flies at the Ohio State University Radio Observatory, in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. On 23 December 1996, in honour of the death of Carl Sagan, three days prior, the flag had been flown there at the half-mast. The flag was originally distributed by Earth Flag Co. International, which was founded by Cadle. The design had entered the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

in 2003. Following Cadle's death, the flag distribution is being continued by North American Astrophysical Observatory.

World Peace Flag of Earth

In 1913, James William van Kirk, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

minister from

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which ...

designed the first known flag proposed to the

peace flag There have been several designs for a peace flag. The Peace Flag initiative "The Peace Flag" is an initiative that aims to unify all nations underneath one common symbol on International Peace Day. While there are various icons of peace – th ...

and the flag of Earth. The design includes the

rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recogniz ...

on the left, consisting of red, green, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and pink stripes. To the right is depicted a brown globe with coordinate grid including the

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

lines, that go from the

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east– west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lette ...

lines of the north and south

polar circle A polar circle is a geographic term for a conditional circular line (arc) referring either to the Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle. These are two of the keynote circles of latitude (parallels). On Earth, the Arctic Circle is currently d ...

s. In the middle of the globe is placed a white horizontal stripe. The globe is connected to the rainbow flag via thin white stripes going from the side of the white stripe on the globe, to the outher boundaries of the coloured stripes on the rainbow flag. Both object are placed on the dark blue background with 46 stars surrounding them. In 1913, and 1929, Kirk made a peace tour through Europe with his flag, promoting "the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God". The Universal Peace Congress adopted Kirk's design as its official World Peace Flag. It was subsequently adopted by the

American Peace Society The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd, in New York City, May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of ...

as well as other groups.

The World Flag

In 1988, Paul Carroll proposed a design titled ''The World Flag'', that combined the flags of 159 member states of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. It was created to promote the global unity and cooperation. The flag depicted the national flags placed next to each other. In the centre of the flag was placed a

Dymaxion map The Dymaxion map or Fuller map is a projection of a world map onto the surface of an icosahedron, which can be unfolded and flattened to two dimensions. The flat map is heavily interrupted in order to preserve shapes and sizes. The projection ...

of the world. The design was updated in the 1992, expanding number of flags included to the total of 230, adding all national flags used at the time, and additionally including the flag of the United Nations, and flags of the various self-governed depended territories. The flag was again updated in 2006, 2008, and 2011, to accommodate for the changes of the national flags and political events. Through the redesigns, the map in the centre of the flag was also changed.

Flags of international organizations

United Nations

The

is an

intergovernmental organization Globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of ...

whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. It is the world's largest and most familiar international organization. It consists of 193 members, representing almost all of the world's

sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined te ...

s. Its flag consists of the white emblem on the

sky blue Sky blue is a shade of light blue comparable to that of a clear daytime sky. The term (as "sky blew") is attested from 1681. A 1585 translation of Nicolas de Nicolay's 1576 ''Les navigations, peregrinations et voyages faicts en la Turquie'' i ...

background. The emblem depicts a

azimuthal equidistant projection The azimuthal equidistant projection is an azimuthal map projection. It has the useful properties that all points on the map are at proportionally correct distances from the center point, and that all points on the map are at the correct azimut ...

of the world map, centred on the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

, with the globe being bisected in the centre by the

Prime meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great ...

and the International Date Line, thus ensuring that no country is at prominence within the flag. The projection of the map extends to 60 degrees south latitude, and includes five concentric circles. The map is inscribed in a wreath consisting of crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree. The size of the emblem on the flag is one half the width of the flag itself. The flag proportions of the aspect ratio of the flag height to its width, are equal 2:3, 3:5 or to the same proportions as the national flag of any country in which the UN flag is flown. The

olive branch The olive branch is a symbol of peace and victory associated with customs of ancient Greece and connected with supplication to gods and persons in power. It is found in most cultures of the Mediterranean basin and became associated with peace ...

es are a symbol for peace, and the world map represents all the people and the countries of the world.