UN Backs Equal-Earth Map to Reduce Mercator Distortion

Key Details

• A map projection converts the curved surface of Earth onto a flat map; every projection introduces some distortion.
• The Mercator projection, created for navigation, greatly enlarges areas near the poles—making places such as Greenland appear far larger relative to equatorial regions such as Africa.
• The Equal Earth projection is an equal-area projection, designed so that countries and continents are shown in more accurate relative size.
• The source highlights that Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland, despite their misleading appearance on many Mercator maps.