Nearly every voting country recently approved of a new way to depict the world. The United Nations’ endorsement of a new global map is intended to better represent the relative sizes of continents and regions, giving particular prominence to Africa in a less western-centric depiction of the world.
UN approves more accurate replacement for centuries-old European world map
The United Nations General Assembly voted 164-1 to approve a new world map. The nonbinding resolution encourages countries and institutions around the world to adopt the Equal Earth projection of the world as the new standard for world maps. The new map, it is argued, offers a more accurate depiction of the true sizes of the various continents and regions of the world. The Equal Earth projection is being promoted as a replacement for the current Mercator projection, based on the 1569 map created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator. The Mercator projection, designed for European explorers, has remained the standard for world maps. Critics, however, note that the map translates a spherical Earth onto a flat surface by stretching regions near the poles, thus exaggerating the relative sizes of regions such as Europe and North America in comparison to areas near the equator.
African nations lead push for new world map
The UN vote approved the Correct the Map resolution for promoting the Equal Earth projection, declaring that this map is “a more accurate representation of the sizes of continental landmasses and to this end is a relevant option for improving the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world.” Five countries abstained from the vote on the Correct the Map resolution, including Ukraine, which objected to the Crimea region — seized by Russia — being greyed out on the map. The resolution was promoted by Togo in cooperation with the other 53 states that form the Africa Group within the United Nations. Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey promoted the resolution before the vote, saying “Maps shape our understanding of the world. They guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions.” Dussey endorsed the Equal Earth projection, which depicts Africa prominently near the center of the map, arguing that “it’s time for us in Africa to take responsibility to change what we can change ourselves.”
United States offers lone objection as it politicizes geography and labels
Only one country — the United States — voted against the measure. Yaryna Ferencevych, Deputy U.S. Representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, criticized the map and the UN while explaining why the US was voting against the resolution. “Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity, or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th century, and their role in promoting reparations and ‘cognitive justice,'” Ferencevych wrote in a statement. “Resolutions like this and the ideological agenda they promote, are barnacles on our work here, and the reason this institution is losing its credibility.” This hostile stance comes as questions of geography have become heavily politicized under the Trump administration. Trump has attempted to unilaterally name bodies such as the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, while also suggesting his own name be attached to the Strait of Hormuz. And the United States had an embarrassing moment when the State Department presented a map of Africa at a global AIDS conference that hallucinated and mislabeled countries on the continent.
The Trump administration may hold that it is not important to properly depict Africa or other parts of the globe. However, representatives for the rest of the world’s countries have voted overwhelmingly to correct a centuries-long distortion of the world’s geography, with the nations of Africa leading the way.
