UN Adopts New World Map: What Was Wrong with the Old One?

The 1569 Mercator Map Origin and Navigation Utility

Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator created the Mercator projection in 1569 primarily to assist European sailors in ocean navigation, according to University College London Professor of Cartography James Cheshire, as reported by the BBC. Cheshire noted that Mercator wanted a straight line drawn on a map to appear as a real-world straight line when following a compass direction. To maintain these accurate angles on a flat surface, Mercator widened latitude lines moving away from the equator toward the poles. This design choice makes countries near the equator look much smaller than their actual size, while regions closer to the poles appear stretched. Over 450 years later, this projection remains the foundation for many maps seen in classrooms, on television, and online, including Google Maps, according to BBC reporting.

Perception and the Representation of Africa’s True Scale

Critics of the Mercator map point out a psychological effect where viewers instinctively equate physical size with importance, according to BBC and CNBC Indonesia coverage. Kenyan geographer Kioko Muendo told the BBC that this distortion implicitly minimizes Africa’s vast resources, population, and investment potential. Muendo stated that maps shape how regions are perceived politically and economically rather than merely serving as travel guides. Under the standard Mercator view, Africa appears roughly similar in size to Greenland, whereas factual data shows Africa is actually about 14 times larger than Greenland, according to United Nations and BBC findings.

The Equal Earth Projection and Alternative Mapping Efforts

To combat these distortions, cartographers developed the Equal Earth projection in 2018 to present land area and shape more fairly, taking inspiration from the 1963 Robinson projection, according to the BBC. The Equal Earth map was adopted by African Union member states in February before the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution, with 164 countries voting in support and the United States casting a vote in opposition, according to CNBC Indonesia. While Equal Earth maintains true land areas, Cheshire explained to the BBC that mapmakers cannot preserve area, shape, distance, and direction all at once on a flat surface. Other historical alternatives, such as the Peters projection designed by German historian Arno Peters in the 1970s based on James Gall’s 1855 work, traded shape accuracy for scale accuracy, which compressed polar regions and stretched equatorial areas while distorting the shapes of landmasses like Russia, according to the BBC.

Global Voting Outcomes and Implications for Indonesia

During the United Nations discussions, Togo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Dussey, who presented the initiative on behalf of African Union member states, emphasized that maps are never neutral and shape how nations understand their standing in the world, as reported by CNBC Indonesia. Out of 165 participating countries, 164 supported the resolution, six abstained, and only the United States opposed it, with the U.S. permanent representative to the UN Economic Council arguing the discussion was a waste of time, according to CNBC Indonesia. France announced plans to adopt similar accurate projections. For Indonesia, situated along the equator, the standard Mercator projection previously caused the nation and other Southeast Asian countries to appear much smaller than reality; the new projections display these regions with proportional accuracy, according to CNBC Indonesia.