What different world maps get right - and what they get wrong
The UN is advocating for a shift away from the traditional Mercator map projection due to its significant distortion of landmass sizes, particularly regarding Africa. While the Equal Earth projection offers better accuracy, the article notes that all flat map projections involve inherent trade-offs.
Why it matters
The debate over map projections touches on how visual representations of geography influence global perceptions of power, size, and political importance.
Image caption, The Mercator projection is the map widely used across the globe but inaccurately depicts the sizes of countries and continents
The UN has just called for the predominant world map to be replaced with one that more accurately reflects the true size of continents like Africa.
The "Correct the Map" resolution adopted by the General Assembly aims to fix the discrepancy on the Mercator map, in which the African continent is shown as being of similar size to Greenland - even though it is in reality about 14 times larger.
It adopted a new map, the Equal Earth projection, which better represents the true sizes of landmasses - but comes with problems of its own.
There have been many prominent attempts over the years to solve the problem of accurately representing the surface of a sphere on a flat rectangle, each with its own benefits and drawbacks.
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