UN Backs New World Map Showing Africa More Accurately

The resolution passed Friday with 164 countries voting in favor, six abstaining and the United States voting against. The Mercator projection, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569, was designed primarily for navigation and preserves directions well, but it increasingly exaggerates the size of land masses as they move toward the poles. As a result, Greenland can appear comparable in size to Africa on a conventional Mercator map even though Africa is roughly 14 times larger.

The resolution promotes the use of the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which is designed to preserve the relative area of continents more accurately while accepting some distortion in their shapes. The UN action is not legally binding, meaning governments, schools, technology companies and other organizations are not required to abandon Mercator maps, but supporters expect the vote to encourage changes in educational materials and other widely used geographic displays. France has separately announced plans to move away from Mercator in favor of the Eckert IV projection, while Togo has proposed further discussions with the African Union, UNESCO and technology companies about implementing the broader campaign.

Sources: Reuters, BBC News, NPR, Al Jazeera, United Nations News and The Guardian.