Overview

• The endorsement aligns the African Union with the Correct The Map campaign, which seeks to phase out Mercator in favor of Equal Earth.
• The effort is also supported by the Caribbean Community, expanding the coalition calling for changes to default world maps.
• A campaign petition urging the United Nations and the BBC to adopt Equal Earth has attracted thousands of signatures.
• Advocates cite Mercator’s well-known distortions, noting it makes Greenland appear comparable to Africa even though Africa is roughly 14 times larger.
• Equal Earth, introduced in 2018, preserves relative landmass areas, though critics stress that all flat maps involve trade-offs and that Google Maps on mobile still uses Mercator.