UN General Assembly Adopts Equal Earth Map Projection Resolution
· World · Al Jazeera, Times of India
The United Nations General Assembly voted 164 to 1 on Friday to adopt a nonbinding resolution promoting the Equal Earth projection to show continents in true proportions. Led by Togo on behalf of the African Group and backed by the African Union, the measure encourages schools, institutions, and technology companies to adopt the map over the traditional Mercator projection. The Mercator map, designed in the 16th century for European colonial exploration, exaggerates landmasses away from the equator while shrinking Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. The United States was the sole nation to vote against the resolution, criticizing it as a radical ideological project, while Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, and Ukraine abstained. Togo plans to host a meeting in Lome early next year with UNESCO, the African Union, and technology companies such as Google to discuss practical implementation.
Why it matters
The adoption of the Equal Earth projection challenges centuries of geographic bias that systematically shrank equatorial regions and continents like Africa on global maps. This shift aims to reshape international education, digital mapping standards, and collective global perception.
Read the original report — Al Jazeera
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