US EditionCampaigners Want to Change the World Map to Show Africa Is Bigger
The African Union supports replacing the Mercator map with the Equal Earth projection to correct Africa's size distortion, impacting perceptions in media, education, and policy.
- On Aug. 14, the African Union endorsed the Correct The Map campaign and will advocate for adopting the Equal Earth projection as a fairer world map.
- The Mercator projection originated as a navigation tool but distorts continent sizes, so the Correct The Map campaign promotes the Equal Earth projection developed by Tom Patterson and colleagues.
- Africa spans 30 million sq. km but appears shrunk on Mercator; the World Bank is phasing out Mercator while NASA and National Geographic use the Equal Earth projection, which shows 14 Greenlands fitting inside Africa.
- AU Commission Deputy Chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi said distorted maps skew perception, noting requests to change the global map have been sent to UN-GIMM for review.
- Campaigners frame the change as correcting centuries of distortion, arguing it addresses long-standing biases that shaped perceptions of Africa's marginalisation, the Correct The Map campaign says.
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▶️ School maps distort the real dimensions of continents, especially Africa, which is underrepresented. A petition aims to correct this distortion for a more accurate representation of the world. (Social issues).
While a petition calls on the UN and the World Bank no longer to use the Mercator map projection that "rapes" the African continent, geographer Vincent Capdepuy points out that the maps are never neutral.
·Paris, France
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources22
Leaning Left6Leaning Right2Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution43% Left, 43% Center
Bias Distribution
- 43% of the sources lean Left, 43% of the sources are Center
43% Center
L 43%
C 43%
14%
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