Ecology Flag

[1] Ron Cobb created an ecology symbol which he published on October 25, 1969 in the Los Angeles Free Press and then placed in the public domain.

[3][4] Jack Shepherd, then Senior Editor at Look magazine, incorporated Cobb’s symbol into an image of a flag for Look’s April 21, 1970 issue.

This widely popularized the theta symbol, which is associated with the Greek word thanatos (death), pointing to human threats to the environment and atmosphere of the earth.

Shepherd and colleagues Christopher Wren, and David Maxie, hung the first Ecology flag from the 5th floor window of the Look Building on Madison Avenue at 51st, next door to St Patrick’s Cathedral.

[6] The flag flew over the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory in Port Hueneme, California in 1973 and decorated a building as a mural in Mississippi Palisades State Park in Illinois in 1976.