The African Union has joined a marketing campaign calling for the widely-used Mercator map, which makes Africa seem smaller than it’s, to get replaced with a map that extra precisely displays the continent’s relative dimension.
AU Fee Deputy Chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi informed Reuters when the scale of Africa is misrepresented on maps, the world’s notion of the continent can be distorted, together with in media, training and coverage.
“It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not,” she stated.
Organizations akin to Africa No Filter and Converse Up Africa are main the “Correct The Map” petition. As of Wednesday night, the petition was about 800 signatures in need of its aim of 5,000.
“By correcting the map, we aim to shift perceptions and highlight the true scale, power, and potential of the African continent,” the marketing campaign defined in a slideshow presentation concerning the effort, which is supplied as a useful resource on its web site.
Members of the Appropriate The Map marketing campaign are as a substitute encouraging international entities to undertake the Equal Earth map, which was developed in 2017 by cartographer Tom Patterson and his colleagues.
Patterson’s map projection is what’s often called an equal space map. It reveals the true relative sizes of nations and continents, however their shapes are distorted. The Mercator map is conformal, which suggests shapes are preserved, however precise sizes are distorted.
The Mercator map was developed in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer. The map allowed explorers to plot their journey in a straight line with out having to regulate their compasses.
“That was extremely useful during the age of exploration and European colonialism,” Patterson informed NPR. “It almost became the de facto world map.”
On Mercator’s map, Africa seems to be about the identical dimension as Greenland, when in actuality, it is about thrice as huge, Patterson stated.
“That’s just a grotesque distortion, so if you’re using the Mercator map as a world map, say, in the classroom, students would just have a completely warped view of the size of countries in the world,” he stated.
circa 1798: Chart of the world on Mercator’s Projection, with the newest discoveries.
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Hulton Archive/Getty Pictures
Patterson stated establishments could select to make use of the Mercator map in order that when customers zoom in, a round object does not change into an oval, for instance. Teams like NASA and Nationwide Geographic have begun utilizing the Equal Earth map, he stated. The World Financial institution informed NPR that it is phasing out the Mercator map in favor of the Equal Earth map, as a result of it is “committed to ensuring accurate representation of all people, on all platforms.”
Google Maps made the Mercator map optionally available on its desktop model in 2018, an organization spokesperson stated.
Organizers of the Appropriate The Map marketing campaign s say they’ve reached out to the United Nations to help in its mission to interchange the Mercator map. The UN didn’t reply to NPR’s requests for remark.
“By making this change, we empower future generations to view Africa not through a lens of distortion or disrespect, but through one of clarity, respect, and African opportunity,” the marketing campaign organizers specified by the slideshow presentation.
