UN General Assembly endorses a new world map that shows more accurately Africa’s size

https://apnews.com/article/un-africa-map-mercator-equal-earth-projection-b138fe9f76d7ff54cc7d5c9b1ddfa983

The Mercator projection shows Greenland and Africa as appearing to be about the same size whereas in the Equal Earth projection that shows continents in their true proportions, Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland.

24 points · 7 comments · view on lemmy.world

7 Comments

I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 16d (1 reply)

I learned about the Goode Homolosine projection map as a wee one in the 90s. How we haven’t sorted this out yet is beyond me.

sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 15d

Plotting the round globe on a flat plane will always lead to compromises. There is no perfect projection.

Just like there is no "perfect" system for ranked choice voting. They all have their benefits and drawbacks, but none is clearly superior in every situation.

deafboy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15d (1 reply)

In the wake of recent events, this feels like something a Trump administration would come up with.

SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 15d

The US were the only country to vote against this decision lmao

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -2 pts · 16d (2 replies)

Amazing how they're been using the white supremacist map for like 80 years. Says alot.

Legianus@programming.dev · 5 pts · 16d (1 reply)

It isn't white supremacist though. It might have the side effect that things closer to the equator are smaller but its main function is that it preserves angles and is/was used for navigation.

All maps/projections from 3D onto 2D surfaces have drawbacks.

Its usage as the UN map is the only potentially questionable thing but I assume it was used die to its prominence in navigation?

deafboy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 15d

Its usage as the UN map is the only potentially questionable thing

Are we talking about the same UN?