The Planet Earth Tartan
The Planet Earth Tartan
The Scottish International Eco-Schools Planet Earth tartan was designed by Rosalind Jones and gifted to us as we celebrate 30 years of Eco-Schools and Young Reporters for the Environment.
The colours of the tartan have all been matched as closely as possible to NASA photographs taken of Earth from Space while the proportions are as close as possible to Earth’s real proportions.
Joining more than 7,000 named tartans that have been designed and woven since the earliest archaeological evidence of tartan cloth in the third and fourth century AD, the Eco-Schools Planet Earth Tartan has been gifted to us becoming part of our heritage.
The tartan symbolises the physical features of Earth as seen from Space. Planet Earth is a sphere of dense rock 12756 kilometres in diameter surrounded by layers of atmospheric gases up to 97 kilometres thick. Oceans cover 70.8% of its crust and reflect deep blue. Land mass covers 29.2%, half reflects green vegetation, one third reflects white ice, and one sixth gold sand. The lowest layer of the pale blue atmosphere, the troposphere, is where water vapour forms clouds and moves in lines, or swirls, as weather systems. NASA Apollo 17 astronauts, looking from the blackness of space, called Earth the Blue Marble.
The design used these Earth colours in proportion, squaring spherical Earth into a tartan sett, but with one important exception. The pale blue representing our thin atmosphere also forms a delicate cross, descending from pole to pole and reaching across the equator. This symbolises the protection life on Earth has from our fragile atmosphere, threatened by emissions from human activity, and now generating extreme weather and rising temperatures. Not to scale, black represents space and the thin white line the Milky Way.
The Planet Earth tartan is a visual, iconic, reminder to us all to cut our own emissions and to protect our world from the extremes of climate change and wildlife extinctions. It is designed to raise awareness of the plight of our planet and to generate a caring and sharing attitude for earth, nature, and each other, globally.
Scottish tartans, like Bar and QR codes, have always delivered important messages. Historically tartans declared membership of a clan. Today they can represent a club, country, or corporation. The Scottish and International Eco Schools Planet Earth tartan delivers a very important message. In tartan code is says… This is where we ALL live. Animals, plants, humanity, our children and grandchildren.
Rosalind Jones, tartan designer
The pale blue cross is a stark warning, a wake up call to be aware and to care for the future of our planet… and the futures of our children!
You can read a Q&A blog from tartan designer Rosalind outlining more detail on the tartan design, and why it was gifted to us.
Find out more about our planned Eco-Schools 30th birthday celebrations and challenges, including design your own tartan.
