Africa: New World Map Makes Africa Look Bigger - What's the Fuss About? Cartographers Explain
The non-binding resolution was backed by 164 countries and aims to reduce Mercator distortions that make Africa and other regions appear smaller.
- The United Nations General Assembly voted to endorse the Equal Earth projection, supported by 164 countries, urging member states to replace the traditional 16th-century Mercator map.
- African nations promoted the projection as a form of "cognitive justice," arguing that traditional maps disproportionately minimize Africa's size and fail to reflect its true prominence.
- The United States cast the sole "no" vote against the resolution, with representative Yaryna Ferencevych claiming the proposal was a "radical and ideological project."
- Despite the endorsement, the resolution is non-binding and does not mandate immediate adoption, requiring intentional revision of textbooks, databases, and diplomatic tools with significant labor and investment.
- While the Equal Earth projection offers fairer educational representation, the Mercator projection remains standard for navigation, as Google Maps and Apple Maps rely on it for accurate compass bearings.
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Africa: New World Map Makes Africa Look Bigger - What's the Fuss About? Cartographers Explain
Analysis - The UN has passed a non-binding resolution to endorse the Equal Earth Projection, a map which more fairly represents the true size of the Earth's landmasses. The current commonly used projection, called the Mercator Projection, greatly exaggerates land towards the north and south poles, which makes Africa look much smaller. In the Mercator projection, countries near the north and south pole can be anywhere from two to 14 times their t…
No map is a perfect representation of reality. Any attempt to level the globe is some kind of distortion.
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