DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

You've been seeing the wrong map your whole life, the UN votes to change it

2026-09-04 17:10:09Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
You've been seeing the wrong map your whole life, the UN votes to change it
Africa on the traditional world map based on the Mercator projection (left), and on the 2018 Equal Earth map (right).

The world map most of us have seen in school, books and on screens is not all that “accurate.” The UN General Assembly will vote on Friday on a resolution aimed at phasing out the traditional map and replacing it with a map that more accurately depicts the true size of the continents.

The initiative is sponsored by Togo (a small country in West Africa) and supported by the countries of the African Union. At the heart of the debate is the fact that the Mercator map, created in 1569 by cartographer Gerardus Mercator, distorts the size of the lands according to their position on the globe.

This means that areas near the equator appear smaller, while those at higher latitudes appear much larger than they actually are. The most stark example is Africa and Greenland. On a traditional map they may appear roughly similar in size, but in reality Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland.

In fact, according to the #CorrectTheMap campaign, the United States, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and most of Europe could be placed inside Africa, and there would still be room left over.

You've been seeing the wrong map your whole life, the UN votes to change it
The 2018 Equal Earth Map

Mercator didn't create the map to accurately measure areas. It was designed to help sailors navigate, so it worked very well for its original purpose. The problem is that, almost five centuries later, it continues to be widely used in education, technology, and institutions.

The campaign, supported by Togo, calls for the use of the Equal Earth map, created in 2018 by an international team of cartographers. This projection better preserves the real proportions of the surfaces and presents Africa much closer to its true size.

For supporters of the change, the issue is not just technical. Critics of Mercator have argued for years that the way the world is visually represented has also affected our perception of the importance of different regions. Some activists have even called this “cartographic colonialism,” saying that the map visually magnifies countries in the Northern Hemisphere and shrinks those in the Southern Hemisphere.

UN resolutions are not legally binding, but if this initiative is adopted, it could pave the way for changes in textbooks, curricula, and the technological platforms we use every day.

 

 


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×