Just imagine this, Mother Earth now has her very own tartan. Yes, I did say Mother Earth. And soon she’ll own a kilt too! Tailored for a Scottish Eco-School dancer it won’t fit Mother Earth’s ample proportions, but it’s hoped that her kilt could ‘circle the world’ delivering her tartan’s vital messages inherent in every pleat. In one glorious swirl, to the skirl of Scottish Eco-School pipers it messages ‘SOS’: Save my Biodiversity! One Earth for All. Stop killing me!
The Blue Marble
Keep Scotland Beautiful, the Scottish Government’s environmental charity has administered Scottish Eco-Schools for 30 years using the international programme owned by the Foundation for Environmental Education. On its 30th anniversary a live streamed assembly from Stirling High School launched a series of challenges to children and young people right across Scotland and those attending also witnessed the launch of the Scottish International Eco-Schools Planet Earth Tartan. A six-metre length woven by D.C. Dalgliesh of Selkirk came with the warp ends of the tartan for a special reason – because Planet Earth Tartan, and its threads, will soon be spread all around the world.
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%, of which half reflects green vegetation, one third reflects white ice, and one sixth golden 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 uses Earth’s 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 with slim arms reaching east and west across the equator. Not to scale, black represents Space where Earth alone is the only living planet. The Planet Earth Tartan is to be a visual 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 about the plight of our planet and to generate a caring and sharing attitude for Earth, nature, and each other, globally. As an innovative map of Earth, it is iconic.
Tartan code
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 it says… This is where we ALL live. Animals, plants, humanity, our children and grandchildren. The pale blue cross is a stark warning. It symbolises the protection life on Earth has from our fragile atmosphere, corrupted by human emissions of carbon from industrial and domestic activity, and now generating extreme weather, rising temperatures, melting ice sheets and glaciers, raising fires, raining floods, giving rise to famines.
Boldly, the Planet Earth Tartan, aims to be a wake-up call. To remind each of us to cut carbon emissions to ensure survival of Earth’s atmosphere and biodiversity, and to safeguard the futures of our descendants. A total of sixty-nine setts from this unique length will be presented to International Environmental organisations and special individuals in recognition of their pioneering work.
Sir David Attenborough was awarded the first sett. Keep Scotland Beautiful and The Foundation for Environmental Education the second and third. Others will follow and all will be invited to contribute a short account of their work, plus their web details. The warp threads will be shared between hundreds of Eco Schools established in 73 countries throughout the world. Planet Earth tartan of a smaller sett size will be made into kilts for Scottish Eco School children to dance, sing, and broadcast ‘Eco News’. Remaining setts will be framed and send to environmental writers, innovators, film makers, inventors, and other individuals already responding to Earth’s desperate SOS.
The message of the Planet Earth Tartan (and Mother Earth’s) is that we must all be aware of what is happening to our beautiful, unique, but finite planet. And that we must care, be fair, and share. Protected by Intellectual Property Office Registration certification and The Scottish Register of Tartans it is hoped that this unique tartan will raise awareness about our Earth and atmosphere.
By: Rosalind F.B. Jones