Dakar, Senegal (AP) – In the Mercator Projection, one of the most popular maps in the world, Greenland and Africa appear to be roughly the same size. However, in the Equal Earth predictions that show the continents in true proportions, 14 Greenlands easily fall within the African continent.
The criticism that Mercator’s projections do not accurately reflect the true scale of Africa is not new.
However, recent campaigns by African advocacy groups have gained momentum online as they encourage organizations and schools to adopt equal global forecasts.
African Uniona continental diplomatic organisation with 55 member states approved the campaign last week with what is called a major milestone.
It is something you need to know about the efforts to show the world the true size of Africa.
Africa is too small on most modern maps
The Mercator map was created in the 16th century by Flanderian cartographer Gerardus Mercator. Designed to assist European navigators at sea, the map distorted land by expanding areas near poles such as North America and Greenland, while reducing Africa and South America.
The 2018 Equal Earth Projection is a modern map following the curvature of the Earth, unlike the distorted Mercator map, showing the continent in true proportions.
Mercator projections remain common in classrooms and high-tech platforms. Google Maps In 2018, we dropped a widely used projection for 3D gloves on desktops, but users can go back to the old map. The mobile app will project Mercator by default.
Group Campaigns to Replace Global Maps
Two African advocacy groups, Africa Unfilter and Speech Africa, launched a campaign to push schools in April, followed by international organizations and media outlets, saying it more accurately reflects Africa’s true size.
“Modifying maps is not just an issue of Africa. It is a question of truth and accuracy that concerns the whole world. When a whole generation develops biased views on Africa and other maps about Africa’s role in the world.
For non-Africans, the diminished representation of Africa minimizes its demographic, economic and strategic significance, Ndiaye added.
The African Union approved the campaign on August 14th. This is the largest institution to sign on to a campaign so far, and marks a significant milestone in the changes to the map campaign.
Geographers say Mercator’s projection is outdated
Mark Montmonier, professor of geography at Syracuse University, said Mercator’s predictions were outdated and geographers have long advised not to use them as world maps.
“It was a useful navigation tool in the 16th century because there are straight lines and gives the navigator a line in a certain direction to sail,” Montmonier said. “But outside of that very narrow navigation application, there’s no point in using it.”
The map following the curvature of the Earth provides a more accurate, true size scale of the continent, like an equal Earth projection, but he warned that bar graphs remain the best way to compare different continent sizes.
“If you place irregularly shaped areas on flat paper, people will have a hard time comparing the size of the land accurately,” Montmonier said.
