UN General Assembly supports abandoning the Mercator projection
The United Nations General Assembly in New York, United States, supported a resolution on gradually abandoning the traditional Mercator projection for world maps in favor of the Equal Earth projection, which more accurately reflects the size of Africa and other regions. According to the Taipei Times, 164 states voted for the document, the United States opposed it, while Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine abstained.
The resolution is not binding
The UN decision is not legally binding: states and institutions are not required to use only the new projection and may continue to use the Mercator map. However, because of its widespread use in education, technology and public administration, the resolution is expected to encourage updates to curricula and everyday technologies.
Togo led the campaign in support of the document on behalf of the African Union. In a statement, the countries said that disproportionate cartographic representations, including those caused by the Mercator projection, had lasting cognitive, educational, cultural, geopolitical and socioeconomic consequences. In Togo’s view, this diminished the perceived size of Africa and other regions. Before the resolution was adopted, Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey called the discussion scientific rather than political, citing scientific evidence.
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Why the Mercator projection is criticized
Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator introduced his projection in 1569 to facilitate maritime navigation. However, areas near the equator appear smaller than their actual area on it, while high-latitude regions are visually enlarged. In particular, Africa may appear comparable in size to Greenland on such a map, although its area is approximately 14 times larger.
The #CorrectTheMap campaign promotes the Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018 by an international group of cartographers. Its supporters believe that a more accurate representation of areas will help change widespread perceptions of Africa and decolonize curricula. France has also announced its intention to abandon the Mercator projection, choosing the Eckert IV projection, which is similar to Equal Earth in its characteristics.
