The United Nations has voted to overhaul the map most of us grew up with. On Friday, member states approved a resolution replacing the traditional Mercator projection with a new standard called Equal Earth, which more accurately represents the true size of countries and continents.
The measure was introduced by Togo, along with several other African nations, and won broad support from European Union countries. It passed with 164 votes in favor, just one against—the United States—and six abstentions.
The push for change stems from a long-standing criticism of the Mercator projection, created in the 16th century for sea navigation. While useful for plotting straight-line routes, it badly distorts the relative size of landmasses, making regions near the poles, such as Europe and Greenland, look much larger than they really are, while shrinking areas near the equator, including much of Africa and Latin America. Critics have long argued this visual bias reinforced a Eurocentric view of the world and downplayed the scale and importance of the Global South.
Equal Earth, developed by cartographers in recent years, aims to correct that imbalance by preserving accurate area proportions across the globe, even if it slightly alters shapes.
Want the full story, including reactions from diplomats? Check out the original report at El Tiempo.
Source: Naciones Unidas adopta un nuevo mapa: esta es la cartografía actualizada que refleja mejor cómo se ve la Tierra (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Newtown grafitti, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).