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.