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4w ago

African Union Backs Campaign to Replace Mercator With Equal-Area World Maps

Advocates say switching to equal-area projections would correct long-standing distortions that shrink Africa on classroom and platform maps.

FILE - Soldiers look at a world map as they wait to board a flight in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, on the way home after completing a deployment in Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. (AP Photo/David Goldman, file)
Pictured here is an 1801 world map using the Mercator projection, which inaccurately depicts Africa as roughly the same size as Greenland — despite Africa being 14 times larger in reality.
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Overview

  • The African Union endorsed the effort on Aug. 14, and organizers say a petition signed by member states has surpassed 5,000 verified signatures.
  • The Correct the Map campaign, led by Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, urges schools and institutions to adopt the Equal Earth projection introduced in 2018.
  • Mercator, devised in the 16th century for navigation, enlarges high-latitude regions so that Greenland can appear comparable to Africa, though roughly 14 Greenlands fit inside the continent.
  • Adoption remains uneven as many classrooms and mobile mapping apps still default to Mercator, even though Google shifted desktop Maps to a 3D globe in 2018.
  • Geographers note no flat map is distortion-free, but many call Mercator outdated for world maps and recommend equal-area options to present countries’ relative sizes more accurately.