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· collected 2026-09-06 · by Mohammed Haddad
The United Nations General Assembly voted 164 to 1 on Friday to adopt a resolution promoting the use of the Equal Earth projection, which shows continents in their true proportions, as an alternative to the Mercator map. The US was the only country to vote against the resolution, calling it a "radical ideological project". The resolution is nonbinding and encourages schools, institutions, and tech companies to switch to the Equal Earth projection, but does not ban Mercator maps entirely. Led by Togo on behalf of the African Group, the resolution aims to correct the distortion of Africa's size on traditional maps, which is exaggerated compared to other continents.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-06,
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Leaning score -0.35 for article 5191 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-09-06
The map of Africa is much larger than most people think.
asserted
people → think → Africa
However, most classroom maps and atlases still understate it – a distortion embedded in the Mercator projection that has shaped world maps for more than four centuries.
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that → understate → centuries
On a Mercator map, which was designed for European colonial exploration and maritime trade in the 16th century, Greenland appears roughly the size of Africa, which is actually about 14 times larger.
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which → design → Africa
The exaggeration increases the farther you travel from the equator, so it falls almost entirely on one half of the world, inflating Europe, including Russia, and North America while shrinking Africa, Latin America and South Asia.
asserted
it → increase → Africa
To address this, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted 164 to 1 on Friday to adopt a resolution promoting the Equal Earth projection, which shows continents in their true proportions, as an alternative to Mercator.
asserted
which → address → Mercator
Led by Togo on behalf of the African Group and backed by the African Union, it encourages schools, institutions and tech companies to switch, correcting the shrinking of Africa and other equatorial regions.
asserted
it → lead → Africa
The African Group is the largest regional voting and dialogue bloc at the UN, consisting of 54 African Union member states.
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Group → vote → states
Map quiz: Pick the bigger country
See it for yourself: pick which country is bigger, then watch it morph from Mercator to Equal Earth to see how close you were.
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you → pick → Earth
How did countries vote?
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countries → vote → ?
The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution calling the measure a “radical ideological project”.
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States → vote → measure
Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine abstained.
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Serbia → abstain → ?
US representative Yaryna Ferencevych said before the vote that the resolution is “the reason this institution is losing its credibility”.
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institution → say → credibility
“Instead of focusing on genuine problems … this body is debating map projects from the 16th century,” she said.
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she → focus → century
Friday’s resolution is nonbinding, intended only to encourage the world’s default maps to change.
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resolution → intend → maps
The UN said it does not ban Mercator or impose a replacement, but simply encourages wider use of the Equal Earth projection.
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it → say → projection
Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey told the UNGA that maps shape education, imagination and collective perception, and that the resolution affirms African reality.
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resolution → tell → reality
The African Union adopted Equal Earth in March.
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Union → adopt → March
Togo is planning a meeting in Lome early next year, with UNESCO, the African Union and technology companies including Google, to work out what implementation looks like in practice.
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implementation → plan → practice
Why flat maps lie
Every flat map lies because the Earth is a sphere and no projection can flatten it without distorting something: shape, area, distance or direction.
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projection → lie → something
Gerardus Mercator, a cartographer and geographer who published the world map in 1569, chose to preserve angles and straight bearings, a trade-off that made sense for 16th-century ships but has kept shaping perceptions of the world for nearly 500 years since.
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that → publish → years
Equal Earth makes the opposite trade-off, preserving true area so continents can be compared honestly, at the cost of slightly bending their outlines.
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continents → make → outlines
