🌍UN Endorses Resolution for Accurate Continental Maps
The Mercator Map's Reign is Ending
TL;DR
The UN has endorsed a resolution to promote maps that accurately reflect the true size of continents, backed by 164 countries. The Mercator map, long the standard, exaggerates sizes, especially for land near the poles. The Equal Earth map offers a compromise, balancing accuracy with less distortion.
The UN has endorsed a resolution to promote maps that accurately reflect the true size of continents, backed by 164 countries. The Mercator map, the standard for nearly 500 years, exaggerates sizes, especially for land near the poles. This resolution aims to correct the cognitive injustice caused by the Mercator map's distortions. The Equal Earth map, created in 2018, offers a compromise, maintaining size accuracy while reducing distortion, making it a viable alternative to the Mercator map.
Key Points
The Mercator map exaggerates the size of continents like Greenland, making it look 14 times larger than Africa.
The Equal Earth map was created in 2018 to balance size accuracy with less distortion, offering a compromise.
The Gall-Peters map, proposed in The West Wing, shows true relative sizes but has significant distortion near the poles.
Boston Public Schools switched from Mercator to Gall-Peters in 2017, sparking debate in the mapping community.
The Winkel Tripel map minimizes three kinds of distortion: area, direction, and distance, offering a balanced view.
Why It Matters
If you're teaching geography or working with spatial data, the shift from Mercator to more accurate maps like Equal Earth is crucial. It ensures that students and professionals understand the true sizes and relationships between continents, avoiding misconceptions. For example, the Equal Earth map provides accurate sizes while minimizing distortion, making it ideal for educational and analytical purposes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this matter?
If you're teaching geography or working with spatial data, the shift from Mercator to more accurate maps like Equal Earth is crucial. It ensures that students and professionals understand the true sizes and relationships between continents, avoiding misconceptions. For example, the Equal Earth map provides accurate sizes while minimizing distortion, making it ideal for educational and analytical purposes.
What happened?
The UN has endorsed a resolution to promote maps that accurately reflect the true size of continents, backed by 164 countries. The Mercator map, long the standard, exaggerates sizes, especially for land near the poles. The Equal Earth map offers a compromise, balancing accuracy with less distortion.
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