The UN voted 164 to 1 to back the Equal Earth map after…
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The UN voted 164 to 1 to back the Equal Earth map after the African Union's Correct The Map campaign. I made an animation showing what changes for Africa
Interactive version, drag the slider yourself: https://papargyri.github.io/correct-the-map/
For 450 years most world maps have used Mercator, drawn in 1569 for sailors. It keeps compass bearings straight by stretching everything far from the equator: Europe, Russia and Canada appear several times their true area, and Greenland looks as big as Africa. Africa is actually 14 times larger (30.4 million km² vs 2.2 million).
On Friday 4 September the UN General Assembly adopted the "Correct the Map" resolution, introduced by Togo for the African Group and backed by the African Union: 164 in favour, 1 against (the US), 6 abstentions. It encourages governments, schools, international organisations and tech companies to use equal-area maps like Equal Earth where relative size matters. It is not binding and does not ban Mercator, which remains useful for navigation.
In the animation, Africa is highlighted and the dashed outline keeps Greenland at its Mercator size so you can see how much the old map inflated it. Borders are real Natural Earth data, re-projected on every frame. Campaign: https://correctthemap.org
#local
Interactive version, drag the slider yourself: https://papargyri.github.io/correct-the-map/
For 450 years most world maps have used Mercator, drawn in 1569 for sailors. It keeps compass bearings straight by stretching everything far from the equator: Europe, Russia and Canada appear several times their true area, and Greenland looks as big as Africa. Africa is actually 14 times larger (30.4 million km² vs 2.2 million).
On Friday 4 September the UN General Assembly adopted the "Correct the Map" resolution, introduced by Togo for the African Group and backed by the African Union: 164 in favour, 1 against (the US), 6 abstentions. It encourages governments, schools, international organisations and tech companies to use equal-area maps like Equal Earth where relative size matters. It is not binding and does not ban Mercator, which remains useful for navigation.
In the animation, Africa is highlighted and the dashed outline keeps Greenland at its Mercator size so you can see how much the old map inflated it. Borders are real Natural Earth data, re-projected on every frame. Campaign: https://correctthemap.org
#local
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