UN backs resolution promoting maps that better show the size of continents

The United Nations General Assembly has backed a campaign to change the world map, approving a resolution that promotes representations showing continents closer to their actual size.

The measure, led by Togo and the African Union and co-sponsored by France, passed by 164 votes to one, with six abstentions. The United States cast the only opposing vote. It encourages governments and international organizations to use maps based on the Equal Earth projection rather than the Mercator projection.

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Maps shape our understanding of the world.

Mercator’s map was designed for maritime navigation, but it artificially enlarges areas at high latitudes. The resolution says that distortion can minimize the perceived size of Africa, Latin America and South Asia and perpetuate an unbalanced view of the world.

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They are therefore never neutral: when they give a distorted image of our planet, they risk perpetuating erroneous representations passed down from generation to generation.

“Maps shape our understanding of the world,” Togo’s foreign minister, Robert Dussey, told the assembly. He said maps influence education, imagination and collective perceptions, adding that they are not neutral when they present a distorted image of the planet. Dussey said the initiative targeted no nation, civilization or cartographic tradition, but sought knowledge based on scientific rigor, truth and the equal dignity of all peoples.

The U.S. representative, Yaryna Ferencevych, dismissed the resolution and its “ideological agenda.” She said the institution should focus on international peace, prosperity and relations between countries rather than cartographic projects dating from the 16th century, and urged members to reject the text.

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Resolutions like this one, and the ideological agenda they promote, hinder the work of this institution and contribute to the loss of its credibility.

France gave the resolution strong backing as it seeks to rebuild ties with Africa after a sharp decline in its influence there. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said changing a map would not change the world, but correcting a distorted representation was already an act of truth.

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Changing the map obviously does not change the world. But correcting a representation that distorts it is already an act of truth.