{"id":590981,"date":"2026-09-05T12:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590981\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T12:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T12:38:19","slug":"new-world-map-reflecting-africas-true-size-endorsed-by-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/590981\/","title":{"rendered":"New world map reflecting Africa’s true size endorsed by UN"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Nations General Assembly endorsed a new world map that represents Africa more accurately in its larger size, a culmination of a recent campaign led by African countries and advocacy groups.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s resolution, which was sponsored by Togo and backed by members of the African Union, was passed with 164 member states voting in favour. Only the US voted against it while six other countries \u2014 Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine \u2014 abstained.<\/p>\n

The vote encourages governments and institutions around the world to replace the traditional Mercator map, commonly used since the 16th Century, with the Equal Earth projection that advocates and geographers say shows locations more accurately.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s resolution does not ban the Mercator projection or impose a replacement, but only encourages the use of the Equal Earth projection, the UN said in its report.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaps shape our understanding of the world,\u201d the global body quoted Togo\u2019s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey as saying before the vote. \u201cThey guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Soldiers<\/p>\n

Soldiers look at a world map (file photo). (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Africa No Filter, one of the lead campaigners for the adoption of the new map, hailed the resolution, adding: \u201cWe want to see accurate maps in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and on the digital platforms billions of people use every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several countries hailed the adoption and urged the adoption of the Equal Earth map. \u201cChanging the map obviously doesn\u2019t change the world. But correcting a representation that distorts it is already an act of truth,\u201d French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot said on X after the vote.<\/p>\n

The Mercator map was designed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to help European navigators at sea, but advocates say it distorted landmasses by enlarging regions near the poles such as North America and Greenland while shrinking Africa and South America.<\/p>\n

The 2018 Equal Earth projection, on the other hand, follows the Earth\u2019s curvature and shows continents in their true proportions.<\/p>\n

Geographers say the traditional map is only useful for navigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside of that very narrow navigation application, there is no point in using it,\u201d according to Mark Monmonier, a Syracuse University professor of geography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Nations General Assembly endorsed a new world map that represents Africa more accurately in its larger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[190,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-590981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-africa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}