Australia and Africa expand, North America and Europe shrink: UN adopts new world map

New York: The United Nations has voted to shift away from the 16th-century Mercator global map towards one more accurately reflecting countries’ true size, a resolution sponsored by African states to counter perceptions that the continent is peripheral.

Togo led the initiative to further the African Union campaign to limit use of the Mercator map, which distorts the relative size of land masses by expanding those nearer the poles. It makes Greenland appear roughly the same size as Africa, though Africa is about 14 times larger.

Some critics say the Mercator map creates a subtle bias: Northern nations – including some of the wealthiest – appear large, while equatorial regions with mostly developing countries are depicted as small. They argue it reinforces a colonial worldview.

“A fair world begins with a fair map,” Togo’s foreign minister, Robert Dussey, said ahead of the vote.

The resolution promotes the Equal Earth projection, which more accurately portrays the size of the continents. While Africa and Australia, for example, appear bigger, North America and Europe look smaller.

It is not legally binding and it “in no way challenges the use of the Mercator projection for maritime and aerial navigation, for which it remains fully suited”, the Togolese ministry said in a statement.

The resolution passed in the UN General Assembly on Friday (US time) by a vote of 164 to 1, with 6 abstentions.

The US, the only country to vote against the resolution, said it promoted an “ideological agenda” and was a distraction from the “genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations”.

The Mercator map – designed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 to help seafarers navigate the world – was made by projecting the Earth’s features on to a cylinder, then flattening that image into a rectangle.

It was important for sailors because any straight line drawn on the map represented a compass direction. Equal Earth – created by cartographers Bojan Savric, Bernhard Jenny and Tom Patterson in 2018 – sacrifices that to show landmasses in correct proportions.

The Mercator projection map is widely used in books and online services such as Google Maps, The New York Times reported. It is also common in classrooms, but Togo hopes to change its school geography materials by the end of the year, Dussey told Reuters.

“Togo will be the first country to change our own geography books,” Dussey said. “In the classroom, we need to change it to give an example to all the countries in the world.”

Togo will press other governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to move away from the centuries-old Mercator projection, Dussey said, adding that Equal Earth offers “the best perception” of the world.

Togo plans to meet African Union member states and supporters from other regions within the next six months to agree on how to promote wider adoption, Dussey said.

He said the discussion about next steps would need to include companies operating mapping, GPS and other location-based technologies.

Dussey linked the campaign to adopt the map to wider African efforts to confront colonial-era legacies, while saying it was not an attack on Europe or any other civilisation.

The Mercator map’s widespread use was a consequence of colonisation, he said. “The world is changing. Africa also is changing.”

Reuters

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