Africa gets bigger, North America smaller as UN adopts new world map; US says ‘focus on genuine problems’

The United Nations General Assembly has approved a new world map that aims to more accurately represent the relative sizes of continents. This change gives Africa greater visual prominence while reducing the apparent size of North America and Europe. The resolution, known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection, received support from 164 countries, with the United States voting against it and six other states abstaining.

The Equal Earth projection, developed by a group of cartographers, is designed to preserve the relative surface areas of continents and as closely as possible maintain their shapes as seen on a globe. This is an improvement over the traditional Mercator projection, which was created in 1569 and does not accurately reflect the relative sizes of landmasses due to the challenge of representing a three-dimensional Earth on a two-dimensional surface.

As a result, the Mercator projection makes Europe and North America appear much larger than they actually are, while Africa and South America seem smaller.

Supporters of the new map argue that maps can shape people's understanding of the world and influence collective perceptions. Foreign Minister Robert Dussey of Togo, the sponsor of the resolution, stated that maps guide education, nourish the imagination, and play a role in cognitive justice. The US representative to the General Assembly, however, criticized the move, saying that the institution should focus on addressing genuine problems instead of debating map projects from the 16th century. He argued that such initiatives contribute to the body's loss of credibility.

France, which co-sponsored the resolution, announced that it would abandon the Mercator projection in favor of the Equal Earth projection. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated that under this new map, the United States, Russia, and China would appear disproportionately large compared to Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. He emphasized that correcting a distorted representation is an act of truth, even though changing maps does not change the actual world.