The United Nations has voted to adopt a new map projection aimed at accurately representing the true size of continents, with a specific focus on correcting the visual distortion of Africa. The move endorses the Equal Earth projection, developed by cartographers in 2018, which addresses the geometric limitations inherent in translating a three-dimensional globe onto a two-dimensional surface.<\/p>\n
For centuries, the Mercator projection, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, has been the standard for navigation and general reference. However, this method distorts landmasses by making countries near the equator appear smaller and those closer to the poles appear significantly larger. While useful for maritime navigation, this distortion has led to a persistent underrepresentation of Africa and other equatorial regions.<\/p>\n
The shift comes after the African Union\u2019s 54 member states formally adopted the Equal Earth projection in February, citing its superior accuracy in depicting continental sizes. Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey emphasized the cultural and political significance of the change, telling Reuters that “a fair world begins with a fair map.” During a UN briefing, Dussey further noted that maps are never neutral tools; rather, they shape public perception and influence how the global community understands the place of different peoples and continents.<\/p>\n
Although the UN vote is non-binding, it is expected to prompt widespread changes to the maps used by international institutions and educational bodies. The decision marks a significant step toward correcting historical cartographic biases and ensuring that Africa is represented proportionally to its actual landmass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UN has voted to adopt the Equal Earth projection, a map designed to correct the size distortions of the Mercator projection, particularly regarding Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[227,1386,1387,764,11,1322,10],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-cartography","tag-global-politics","tag-mercator-projection","tag-uk","tag-un","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yovao.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}