164 nations voted to show Africa at its true size

The United Nations General Assembly voted 164 to 1 on September 4 to urge schools, governments and technology companies to adopt world maps that show countries at their true relative sizes. The target is the Mercator projection, drawn in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, which is excellent for compass navigation and terrible at scale. On a Mercator map, Greenland looks about as big as Africa. Africa is roughly 14 times larger. The resolution points to the Equal Earth projection, developed in 2018, and does not ban anything. Togo, the West African country leading the #CorrectTheMap campaign, plans to update its geography textbooks before the end of the year. "Maps are more than just guides for travelers," Kenyan geographer Kioko Muendo told the BBC. The oldest known world map, a clay tablet from the sixth century B.C.E., sits in the British Museum. It got a lot wrong too, but not on purpose.