United States statements
The United Nations adopted the Africa-led map resolution on September 4 with 164 votes; six countries abstained, and only the United States voted against it. The United States described the resolution as a “radical ideological project.” The non-binding resolution encourages governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use maps such as Equal Earth, developed in 2018, that accurately represent areas when size matters. It also recommends teaching the trade-offs involved in transferring a global sphere onto a flat surface.
Mercator figures
The projection developed by Gerardus Mercator in 1569 became useful and widespread in maritime navigation because it showed the routes of ships following compass directions as straight lines. Popular navigation apps, including Google Maps and Apple Maps, still use derivatives of the Mercator projection; Google Maps alone has more than 2 billion monthly users. However, this projection makes land masses far from the equator appear larger than they actually are: Africa can appear similar in size to Greenland, even though it is actually 14 times bigger.
Bojan Šavrič timeline
The visual enlargement of Greenland could also have political effects. A study published in Communication Reports reported that national security arguments presented alongside a Mercator map could influence consideration of the Trump administration’s proposal to purchase Greenland. Equal Earth was developed by Bojan Šavrič, Bernhard Jenny and Tom Patterson following Boston Public Schools’ decision to use the Galls-Peters projection in 2017.
The True statements
A study involving 130,000 people showed that those familiar with the Robinson map estimated the sizes of continents and countries more accurately than those familiar with the Mercator map. Kai Krause’s 2010 visualization “The True Size of Africa” and the “The True Size Of…” website illustrate this distortion. The decision could increase the use of Equal Earth in education; however, it is not expected to change navigation apps. Physical globes or Google Earth’s 3D imagery can be used for accurate shapes and sizes.