Correcting Global Cartography: UN Backs Resolution to Adopt Equal Earth Map and Reveal Africa's True Size

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted to support a resolution championed by several African countries to adopt a new map that accurately depicts the continent's massive true size compared to conventional global representations. Supported by 164 countries on Friday, the initiative seeks a more accurate portrayal of continental landmasses, though the United States voted against the measure and six other states abstained.

Known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection, the newly endorsed map serves as a vital tool for improving the accuracy of global cartography. Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, whose nation drove the push for the resolution, emphasized that maps shape education, nurture the imagination, and influence collective perceptions, thereby reaffirming African reality through this adoption.

The decision moves away from the centuries-old traditional Mercator projection designed in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator for maritime navigation. While the Mercator projection successfully preserved shapes and angles, it severely distorted relative sizes due to the complexity of flattening a three-dimensional globe, artificially inflating northern regions while compressing equatorial areas to make Europe and North America appear much larger at the expense of Africa and South America.

Despite its modest appearance on traditional maps, Africa spans an impressive 30.3 million square kilometres (11.7 million square miles), making it large enough to hold the US, China, India, and most of Europe combined. In contrast, the Mercator projection deceptively portrays Africa as roughly the same size as Greenland, which is actually 14 times smaller. Other regions evaluated in the global landmass assessment include Latin America at approximately 20 million sq km (7.7 million sq miles), Oceania at about 8.5 million sq km (3.3 million sq miles), and South Asia at roughly 5.1 million sq km (2 million sq miles).

Reactions to the map change have been largely favorable, with France co-sponsoring the resolution and announcing it would abandon the Mercator projection. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot noted that while changing maps does not physically alter the world, correcting a distorted representation is an essential act of truth. Meanwhile, the US offered strong opposition, with representative Yaryna Ferencevych criticizing the UN for debating 16th-century map projects instead of addressing pressing global problems.

The Equal Earth projection was originally launched in 2018 by cartographers Bojan Savric of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Tom Patterson of the US National Park Service, and Bernhard Jenny of Monash University to preserve the relative surface areas of continents. Although Friday's resolution remains non-binding and does not ban the Mercator projection, it encourages governments and institutions worldwide to transition toward the more accurate Equal Earth standard.