UN urges replacement of predominant world map over continent size distortions

What happened

The UN General Assembly adopted the 'Correct the Map' resolution, aiming to address distortions in the most widely used flat world map, the Mercator projection. As part of that move, the Assembly adopted the Equal Earth projection as an alternative intended to better represent land areas.

A central problem highlighted by the resolution is that on the Mercator map Africa and Greenland appear roughly the same size, while in reality Africa is about 14 times larger. That mismatch has been a major justification for changing the commonly used projection.

The source does not provide a detailed timetable for implementation or describe how the new projection will be rolled out across education, media or digital platforms. It reports the adoption of the resolution and of Equal Earth, but not the operational steps that will follow.

Why this is happening

The underlying issue stems from the mathematical impossibility of perfectly representing a spherical surface on a two-dimensional rectangle: different projections preserve different properties and necessarily distort others. The Mercator projection, created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, preserved compass bearings and proved invaluable for sea navigation, but achieved that by stretching latitude lines away from the equator.

As James Cheshire, a cartography professor at University College London, explains, Mercator was designed so a straight line on the map would correspond to a constant compass bearing in reality — which is why it remained so useful for sailors. However, that approach makes countries near the equator look much smaller and those nearer the poles appear enlarged.

Critics also point to the psychological effects of map distortions: larger-looking regions are often perceived as more important. Kenyan geographer Kioko Muendo says maps shape political and economic perceptions and that Mercator's distortions have implicitly downplayed Africa's resources, population and investment opportunities. The source offers expert commentary but does not include quantitative studies of these perceptual effects.

How this will affect things

The Equal Earth projection, developed by a team of cartographers in 2018, seeks to present the area and shape of landmasses more accurately. It was inspired by the Robinson projection of 1963 and is designed to restore a fairer sense of relative continental sizes.

At the same time, Equal Earth gives up the straight-line navigation property that made Mercator useful: it does not preserve true compass bearings and cannot be used to measure exact distances between points. As James Cheshire put it, one can preserve area, or shape, or distance and direction, but not everything perfectly at once.

Other projections offer different trade-offs. The Peters projection, developed by German historian Arno Peters in the early 1970s and based on a projection first described by Scottish cartographer James Gall in 1855, prioritises correct area at the expense of shape — polar regions appear squashed while equatorial regions are stretched. That fixes the Greenland–Africa size comparison but distorts the forms of landmasses and is unsuitable for navigation because its straight lines do not represent constant compass bearings.

What comes next

The source notes that African Union members adopted the Equal Earth projection in February, but it does not give a year or outline how adoption will be implemented across schools, broadcasters or online map services. Thus, precise timelines and the scope of any transition remain unspecified.

The article also highlights that no single projection is universally correct: for example, the Azimuthal equidistant projection preserves distances and directions from a chosen centre point and is used on the UN flag, which is centred on the North Pole. Such projections have their own limitations tied to the choice of centre.

Given these trade-offs, subsequent debates are likely to focus on practical questions: which maps will be taught in classrooms, featured on television and used by online services; whether publishers and state institutions will change standards; and how to reconcile demands for accurate area, recognisable shapes and navigational utility. The source does not provide firm answers to these implementation issues.