US opposes Africa-backed Equal Earth map as 164 countries vote in favour
NAIROBI,Kenya, Sep 5— The United States was the lone country to reject an African-led campaign to change how the world is depicted on maps, as 164 countries backed a United…
The United States was the sole country to vote against an African-led resolution at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, which aimed to promote the use of equal-area world maps in place of traditional projections like the Mercator projection. The resolution, sponsored by Togo and supported by 163 countries, including member states of the African Union, called for the use of maps that accurately represent the relative size of landmasses when important.
Only six countries, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine, abstained from voting. While the resolution is non-binding, it encourages governments, schools, international organizations, and technology companies to adopt equal-area projections when needed. The US representative at the General Assembly dismissed the proposal as part of a broader ideological campaign and argued that the UN should focus on more pressing global issues instead of debating historical cartographic methods.
The African Union, however, saw the resolution as a historic step towards correcting the distortions in global cartography that often misrepresent the size and importance of African countries and continents. The debate centers on the Mercator projection, created by Gerardus Mercator in 1569 for navigational purposes, which distorts the sizes of landmasses, especially those far from the equator.
Written by urgent.news from Capital FM Kenya's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
