Sourced fact
The News
According to the Qatari news agency Al Jazeera, the United Nations has voted to adopt a new world map that accurately reflects the true size of Africa. The Mercator projection map, which has been widely used for centuries, is often criticized for visually exaggerating the size of Western nations and centralizing them.
Analysis & context
Analysis & Context
From an analytical perspective, this move is part of efforts to improve the geographical representation of the world and enhance the depiction of southern nations on maps. The Mercator projection, which has been popular for centuries, uses a geographic system that increases the visual size of areas closer to the poles and decreases the size of areas closer to the equator. This representation inflates the size of European and North American countries, making Africa and other continents appear smaller than their actual size. In a broader context, this issue faces significant political and cultural challenges as southern nations strive to improve their representation in various fields, including images and maps.
