World map news
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The gist
The UN General Assembly adopted the "Correct the Map" resolution 164-1, endorsing the Equal Earth projection.
The vote pushes classrooms and media toward maps showing Africa's true scale.
Background
The Mercator projection, drawn in 1569 to help sailors plot straight compass lines, remains widely used despite heavily distorting the size of places far from the equator — Africa is about 14 times the size of Greenland. Dozens of African countries, backed by the African Union and campaign groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa, pushed a resolution to "Correct the Map"; Togo led negotiations at the UN. The resolution does not ban Mercator but encourages more equitable representation of the world's regions.
How it unfolded
- 1569Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator drew up the Mercator projection so sailors could draw a straight line between two points for a constant compass bearing.
- 2018Cartographers Bojan Savric, Bernhard Jenny and Tom Patterson invented the Equal Earth map, showing countries and continents in correct proportion.
- Jan 2025President Donald Trump signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America"; Google and Apple applied it for U.S. users, while MapQuest and Canada did not.
- Aug 2026Trump signed an order directing the federal government to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" amid a trade war with Canada.
- Sep 4, 2026The UN General Assembly adopted the "Correct the Map" resolution 164-1, endorsing the Equal Earth projection; six countries abstained and the United States voted against.
- Sep 6, 2026A man in Shanghai, China checked the "Equal Earth" map projection on a screen.
- Sep 14, 2026Smithsonian Magazine reported on the UN vote to endorse global charts that better represent Africa's true size.
- Sep 16, 2026Behind the News published a video explaining the Equal Earth map and why it has been put forward to replace Mercator.
- Sep 17, 2026Newsweek published a full list of countries upset by the new world map.
- Sep 20, 2026ABC News and ClickOrlando published an AP article on maps not being neutral.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- The United Kingdom said it voted in favour of the resolution in good faith.
- Bears
- U.S. deputy representative to the UN Economic and Social Council Yaryna Ferencevych said the resolution "mocks the work and purpose of this institution," calling it part of a "much larger" project and a "radical ideological project."
- Support
- Togo's foreign minister Robert Dussey said maps shape understanding of the world, guiding education and influencing collective perceptions.
- Party
- African member states said in the resolution that correcting cartographic distortions of continental sizes is "an act of cognitive justice and memorial reparation."
- Expert
- Alex Moulton of Hunter College said that to the extent maps shape how people think about places and their inhabitants, they structure politics with consequences.
- Caution
- Joy Maimela, chairperson of South Africa's Parliament Portfolio Committee on Basic Education, said she first wanted to establish which maps South African children use in textbooks, atlases, classrooms, examinations and digital resources before deciding whether anything needs to change.
Still unverified
Several other countries have spoken out against the map, citing border disputes, with six abstaining from the September 4 vote, according to Newsweek.