On September 4th, 2026, the General Assembly of the United Nations approved a new word map projection: the Equal Earth. This new type of cartographic projection tries to represent the countries around the world with minimal distortion. The proposal was presented to the Assembly by the African Union in 2026, led by Togo.
In the Mercator projection (the actual world map) some countries are represented with notable deformations. One of the most emblematic examples is Greenland. In the Mercator’s map, this Danish territory is represented as about 300% larger.
The resolution was approved by 164 countries. Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine abstained from the project. The only country that voted against the new world map was the United States.
The history of Mercator’s projection
Until Ancient Greece, people used to write travel reports to describe the world, instead of drawing maps. However, in the 6th century BC, a man named Anaximandro of Miletus drew the first map that humanity has knowledge of.
Researchers found texts of other Greeks that describe that map. Unfortunately, Miletus’s map was lost. According to records, this map represented a disk-shaped symbol, with areas inhabited by humans surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Over the course of 700 years, other scholars of Ancient Greece started to improve the drawing of other maps.
In 150 CE, Ptolemy, an astronomer and mathematician, took the first step in modern cartography by drawing his world map. He used a system of latitude and longitude to calculate the distance between locations.
Furthermore, this map purposes that far locations could be fixed by those coordinates, making it easier to draw other regions. When cartographers had a fixed location of a territory, another one could recreate the map with more precision. With this discovery, his world map was considered too advanced for his time.
Nevertheless, during the European Middle Ages, people used to use simplefied maps. Years later, some researchers rediscovered Ptolemy’s maps, whicht led some cartographers begin drawing maps with more precision, helping travelers during the Age of Exploration.
Gerardus Mercator was one of the most famous figures of this period in cartography. His map was based on the idea that the Earth is spherical. His representation has a system of coordinates that tries to represent the real form of the Earth.
However, to represent the sphere, he needed to distort the areas near to the poles, making them appear larger than they really are. Due to the map’s precision, this representation aided mariners during Great Navigations.
Political IMPLICATIONS of Mercator’s world map
Although Mercator didn’t use ideologies in practice to build his maps, the context in which they were made is important to understand how the concept of ideology was used by people at that time to consider the northern part of the world superior to the south.
According to the Brazilian article, Um outro paradigma para a análise do Mapa-Mundi de Mercator de 1569 (Another paradigm for the 1569 World Map Mercator’s analysis), the cartographer produced his firsts maps for the most prosperous dynasties in Europe. The production of world maps always had an ideological component that was influenced by powerful people.
Between 1530 and 1550, Mercator produced some maps and globes commissioned by the Habsburg family, one of the most powerful families in European history. According to the article, Mercator produced his 1569 map to the Pope Pious V.
The most accepted theory is that the order was given by the Pope to survey the Catholic territories in America and to create new strategies to protect them from other religious orders.
For these reasons, the article concludes that Mercator was aligned with these ideas, for which his maps were constantly commissioned. Consequently, he created a powerful instrument, used as a tool for domination.
Therefore, because of the distortions in his map, he ended up creating a mechanism that reinforces an exclusionary ideology.
Because it is located in the northern part of the globe, Europe ended up being represented as larger than it actually is. These distorted representations were used to reinforce the ideia that this part of the world is more important than other parts of the world.
Coincidentally, the parts where distortion wasn’t noticeable, such as those near the Equator, have historically been subjugated by the more distorted parts. Consequently, the dominant narrative is reinforced.
WHY Is this CHANGE important?
According to José Luiz Goldfarb, a History of Science professor at PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo), this change to the world map is extremely necessary.
In the professor’s opinion, this new representation will show future generations the importance of seeing equality in cartographic representations: “Guys, why can’t I use the old map? Someone will give an explanation. But the important thing is that people will realize that the map is changing, and, in our case, we’ll realize that Brazil is bigger than it seems. So, Brazil isn’t that small, South America isn’t that small and Africa isn’t that small. The Global South isn’t that small”, said Goldfarb.
For the professor, this is part of an important fight for space that subjugated countries have been engaged in for so many years: “They will become larger, the representation on paper will be better. But all the leaders, all the countries of the world, will have a different, altered representation, emphasizing the size of the countries that weren’t chosen under the previously proposed plan” said the researcher.
According to Goldfarb, the position of the United States in this theme is harmful. In his opinion, Donald Trump is acting like a dictator in his latest geopolitical decisions: “If you find a movement of the entire planet to form a map adequate and, if Trump is against it, if he’s for order, he’s already been a dictator. So, you talk to him and we won’t understand anything. He’s changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Ontario… He’s turning everything into Lake America, Gulf of America. And he’s going to keep doing it. Then we’ll all have to flee. It’s going to be a lot of work to change this whole thing later” the professor said.
This new world map emerges at a historic moment as more people are begin to understand that all countries deserve equal treatment on the international stage. When major economic and political powers disagree, such disagreements reveal a fear of losing power.
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The article above was edited by Nina Simonetti.
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