We are all aware of the different types of and the multitude of ways we humans have divided ourselves, even though we belong to the same species. This has been going on for thousands of years.
Ever since we built the first villages, the first towns, the first civilisations, this concept of “us and them”, has prevailed. Anyone not belong to your civilisation or not sharing your “way of life” is automatically deemed an outsider.
Even today, in the 21st century, we have such opinions and today we do it in terms of countries and continents. But the divisions and differences run deeper than that and it seems that the sense of unity has been lost.
We only realise that we are one species and are all the same flesh and blood, when we are faced with a global challenge such as natural disasters or man-made disasters. But, should it be like that? Can we not unite without the presence of a threat?
A New Hope
Now, for the first time in our human history, we are seriously looking at colonising other planets in our neighbourhood starting with Mars and our natural satellite, the moon.
There are many plans by many countries and private companies to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and Mars ensuring our chances of survival as a species.
We have been to the moon, have a constant presence in the low Earth orbit (in ISS), and have sent countless unmanned missions to planets, moons, asteroids and even beyond our solar system, but till now we have done it as Americans, Russians, Chinese, Indians or citizens of any other country.
With plans of colonising other planets and moons, humanity has a new hope of putting aside these differences and starting over as just humans and citizens of Earth and that hope has come in the form of a flag.
The International Flag of Earth
The first photo of this post shows the International Flag of Earth. It is made by Oskar Pernefeldt of Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden.
It was created for the very purposes I have been talking about. Space travellers of the future will be representatives of Earth and not just of the countries they belong to and for this purpose, this flag was made to instil a sense of unity for whoever ventures out there into the cosmos to further the human cause.
The flag’s design is a testament to that fact of unity. It consists of seven rings that form a flower at the centre which is a symbol of life on Earth. Also, the seven rings coming together to form this flower represents the unity of us humans who have to come together despite any boundaries, if we are to expand our reaches beyond our planet.
The blue color in the flag represents water which is essential for life on Earth and also signifies that most of the Earth is covered with water.
What Do You Think?
Right now this flag has not been officially adopted. It is, of course not mandatory for anyone to start using this flag in any of their space missions, but what do you think? Should we start this practise?
In my opinion, we should start this already! That’s because from here on, our space missions will keep on increasing. I have already talked about the colonisation missions but space tourism is something that will become a reality soon too.
So, it’s no doubt that humans are going to be travelling a lot in space in the future and I think we should start this practise of representing Earth as a whole in addition to any country when we are “out there”.
Also, if extra terrestrials ever arrive, what would they think of us if we do not have an official Earth flag!
All images taken from flagofplanetearth.com.
7 rings for 7 continents of the world?
Next step?
Source: Wikipedia
This one is still a long way into the future ;)
I would love to see the world unite, but that will probably never happen. It's in the nature of human beings to fight over things.
Because of religion
Because politics
Because of prejudice
Because of language barriers and misunderstandings
Because of the greed of certain individuals, there’s too much profit in conflict to allow it to end
Because humans are just intelligent animals, still driven by emotion and instinct, not logic, we still follow the leader, even if that leader is a lying sociopath.
It is true. If the human nature was not what is, we would have already reached greater heights of success. But I am an optimist and I have to believe that some day in the future, we might just all change.
"Because of the greed of certain individuals, there’s too much profit in conflict to allow it to end"
we could easily fix that with communism
After all, we are all humans! (even if we are killing each other so easily...)
Yes, humanity should be the only identification that should really matter now that we are in the infancy of becoming a space faring civilisation. I wish we could stop killing each other :(
This is a nice dream. I'm cynical enough to fear that our species is simply incapable of ever presenting such a united front for long, but I hope I'm wrong. I've always believed that uniting under a single planetary government is essential if we're going to expand out into space and survive in the ultra long-term. I like to think of myself as a citizen of Earth first, and United States second.
The EU was a bold step in the right direction, but Brexit has dealt it a terrible blow from which it may not recover. Adopting a single agreed upon flag for space missions is an excellent idea, and I like the symbolism of the design you've highlighted. Now if only you can get NASA and the other major space agencies of the world to pay attention to this!
I am glad you share my hopes for humanity. I believe that one day, we will be a planetary civilisation, not today, not tomorrow, but some day. Maybe 1000 years in the future, but I think that is a natural step in any intelligent civilisation's evolution.
About NASA taking notice....Actually I read that NASA helped with this project along with some other companies like LG. So, the idea is out there, waiting to get adopted! :)
Come one... We no there are no such things as other planets. There has never been one shred of evidence of space flight. The queen of england had her people examine a moon rock.. it was earth's petrified rock. they tried to lie. Everything from ISS is CGI.. get away from here with this stupidity.. colonizing mars... nonsense.. but we cannot get one live stream of a rocket going into space and staying in orbit. I am not stupid. The rest of the world can be stupid but not me!
what? they live stream every one lmao
Come on buddy. Send me a link with no cuts and no CGI. ISS BEEN PROVEN TO BE A FAKE. AND THEY NEVER WEND BACK TO THE MOON. CHECK OUT 'WORLDS beyond the Poles"