US EditionWhy Does Greenland Look Bigger than Africa — and India Smaller? The Mercator Projection Explained
5 Articles
5 Articles
“A map is not just a technical tool, but a symbol, and the symbols matter. For us, correcting the map also means correcting the global narrative about Africa,” says Fara Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of Speak Up Africa, one of the organizations behind Correct The Map. The African Union (AU) has just supported this initiative, which seeks to stop governments, international organizations and educational organizations from using …
The Mercator Map and the True Size of Africa – MoreBranches
Did you know that most world maps we see every day, from school classrooms to websites like Google Maps (on mobile), use a map projection created in the 16th century? This projection, the Mercator projection, was designed for a very specific purpose: navigation at sea. The Mercator projection was created in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer. His goal was to create a map where a straight line would represent a constant compass bea…
Why does Greenland look bigger than Africa and India smaller? The Mercator projection explained
The African Union has joined a growing campaign to challenge centuries of cartographic distortion that the true scale of Africa on world maps has long reduced. The 55 countries block recently endors the use of alternatives for the much learned Mercator projection, with the argument that the shift is about dignity, power and recovering the […]
The African Union (AU) has announced its support for the Correct The Map campaign, which aims to replace the projection of Mercator with the Equal Earth model, which is more respectful of the real areas of the continents. The initiative, led by the NGOs Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, aims to correct a biased perception of Africa still widely conveyed in textbooks and online maps. Mercator's projection, designed in 1569 for navigation, pre…
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- 50% of the sources lean Left, 50% of the sources are Center
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