UN votes to redraw map to show true size of all countries
At the moment, Greenland and Africa look to be of the same size
The world is about to change… literally, when a resolution passed at the UN General Assembly is acted upon. The resolution, backed by African countries, pushes for the maps to represent more accurately the relative size of contents.
The proposal got a vote of 164 to 1, with the US being the only country against it. It called the initiative part of a "radical ideological project”. Six countries abstained from voting, said UN News.
This does not prohibit the use of the Mercator projection - a cylindrical map that flattens the Earth onto a flat surface – instead, states UN news, it encourages people and companies to use the Equal Earth projection or others where relative size is taken into account.
The Mercator projection, explains Independent.co.uk sees greater distortions in representation for regions that lie further away from the equator. Since Africa straddles the equator it appears in area to be equal to Greenland in spite of it being 14 times larger.
"Maps shape our understanding of the world," said Robert Dussey, Togo's foreign minister, before the vote. "They guide education, fuel the imagination, and influence collective perceptions."
In a briefing to the African Group at the UN this week, he added: "Africa is not asking for preferential treatment. Africa is asking that its reality, aspirations and contribution to the international system be duly taken into account."
