UN Backs New World Map as U.S. Casts Lone Vote Against

A world map drawn using the "Equal Earth projection," whose use the United Nations has recommended through a resolution. AFP-Yonhap The United Nations has formally endorsed the adoption of a new world map that depicts the true size of the African continent without distortion. The United States was the only member to vote against it. From Mercator to Equal Earth The General Assembly passed a resolution to replace the standard world map, a measure long backed by African Union member states and others, the UN said on the 7th. A total of 164 member states voted in favor, with the U.S. the sole vote against. Six countries — Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine — abstained. At the heart of the resolution is a change in map projection. It recommends that governments and institutions use the Equal Earth projection, which represents the location and size of regions more accurately, in place of the Mercator projection that has been widely used since the 16th century. Developed in 2018, the Equal Earth projection is an equal-area projection that shows the relative area of each part of the globe accurately while keeping shape distortion relatively low, giving it a natural appearance. African countries have pressed for the projection's adoption for years. In a related report, the UN said the resolution does not ban the use of the Mercator projection or force a switch to any particular map, but rather encourages use of the Equal Earth projection. The U.S., in casting the only vote against, framed the resolution as an ideological fight. Speaking at a plenary session on the 4th, a day before the vote, Jarina Ferencevic, U.S. deputy representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, argued that the resolution was presented as a trivial effort to revise proportions on a map but was in fact part of a far larger and more radical ideological project. She said the UN was debating a 16th-century mapping project and its role in advancing reparations and cognitive justice instead of focusing on core issues such as international peace, prosperity and good-neighborly relations, and criticized the ideological agenda behind such resolutions as a reason the UN is losing credibility. Africa Is 14 Times Larger Than Greenland The Mercator projection was devised for navigation by Gerardus Mercator in the 16th century, as Europe expanded overseas. Its ability to represent angles and directions accurately made it the most widely used world map. Its limitation is that while areas near the equator appear close to their actual size, land is inflated increasingly toward the poles. As a result, countries near the Arctic appear larger than they are, while Africa and other regions near the equator look relatively smaller. Africa is in fact 14 times larger than Greenland, yet the two appear almost the same size on a Mercator map. Foreign ministers offered their reflections after the resolution was adopted. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on the social media platform X that changing a map does not change the Earth, but that correcting a form of representation that distorts the planet is in itself an act in the service of truth. Africa No Filter, the organization that has led the push for the new map, welcomed the resolution, saying it wants accurate maps in schools, textbooks, newsrooms, businesses and the digital platforms used every day by billions of people.