The United Nations recently called for the current world map to be replaced with one that more accurately reflects the true dimensions of the continents, including Africa.
A “map correction” resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly aims to correct the flaw in Mercator’s map, in which the continent of Africa is roughly the size of Greenland, when in reality it is about 14 times larger.
The resolution adopted a new map known as the Flat Land Projection, which more accurately reflects the true dimensions of land masses, although it also has some flaws.
Over the years, there have been several notable attempts to solve the problem of accurately representing a spherical surface on a flat rectangle, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Mercator map
image source, Universal Image Group via Getty Images Images
In 1569, the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator created the map that bears his name, which is still widely used today.
According to James Cheshire, professor of cartography at University College London, its main purpose was to help European sailors navigate the oceans.
“He wanted a straight line drawn on a map to actually look like it was following a straight compass direction. That’s what it was designed for and it does it brilliantly,” Cheshire told the BBC.
To keep these angles straight on a flat map, Mercator had to widen the distance between the grid lines as they moved away from the equator toward the poles.
His map manipulates the curvature of the Earth so that countries near the equator appear much smaller than their actual size, while countries closer to the poles appear elongated and large.
This distortion occurs due to the impossibility of representing the Earth’s surface with complete accuracy on a two-dimensional map.
More than 450 years later, Mercator’s innovation remains the basis for many of the maps we see in classrooms, on TV and online, including Google Maps.
But critics of Mercator’s map say that seeing some places as smaller and others larger has a psychological effect, because we instinctively tend to see larger things as more important.
Kenyan geographer Kyoko Mwendo believes this portrait grossly underestimates Africa’s vast resources, population and investment opportunities.
He told the BBC: “Maps are not just guides used by travellers, but help to shape our view of regions politically and economically.”
flat earth map
The iso-Earth map aims to solve the problem of distortion in the Mercator projection.
It was developed by a group of cartographers in 2018 to more accurately represent the sizes and shapes of land masses. It is inspired by Robinson’s 1963 projection, a map that shows the entire surface of the Earth in one image.
African Union member states adopted an equal land map in February.
But it leaves out the straight lines that made the Mercator projection ideal for navigation and is not suitable for measuring actual distances between different places.
“You can maintain area, shape, distance and direction, but you can’t maintain them with perfect precision at the same time, or you’ll go back to being spherical,” Cheshire said.
Peters map
German historian Arno Peters created the world map that bears his name in the early 1970s. This rectangular map is based on a projection first described by Scottish cartographer James Gall in 1855.
This projection sacrifices the accuracy of shapes for the accuracy of areas, so polar regions appear compressed and regions near the equator elongated.
Thus, it solves the problem of the disparity between the sizes of Greenland and Africa and gives users a clearer perception of the relative sizes of different land masses, while the latitude and longitude are correct.
However, the map greatly distorts the shapes of the land masses, making them somewhat unrecognizable. Russia, for example, seems much smaller.
Also, the straight lines on Peters’ map do not represent fixed and true compass directions and are therefore not suitable for navigation.
Other ways to map the world
image source, NurPhoto via Getty Images
There are other ways to map the world.
For example, an equal azimuthal projection shows regions of the world at the correct, proportional distance from one chosen central point.
The flag of the United Nations provides a good example of this, as the world map drawn on it is centered on the North Pole.
Every point on this type of map is a true “azimuth,” that is, a true horizontal direction relative to a central point.
image source, Corbis via Getty Images
There are also south-facing, or inverted, maps in which the regions of the southern half of the world are visible at the top.
It’s just a traditional map with north at the top, rotated 180 degrees.
