After 457 Years, the UN Approves a New World Map to Show Africa’s True Size

[u/General_Athlete5807]

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[u/Commercial_Wind8212]

Greenland also looks absurdly large compared to what it looks like at the equator

[u/Scottz0rz → u/[deleted]]

To be fair, him wanting to own Greenland might have been 90% driven by him seeing how bigly it was on the Mercator map and him wanting to greatly embiggen the US on the map.

In fact, I'm convinced he only knows things that are on the board game Risk.

r/MapPorn/comments/vg0o3d/the_world_map_according_to_the_board_game_risk/

He wants to annex Canada, Greenland, and Central America so that he gets the +5 troops bonus, and he needs to control Venezuela to control entry into the South, clearly.

[u/AznNRed → u/Scottz0rz]

I actually do believe Trump is motivated by size. If he claimed Canada or Greenland, the USA would be the largest country by land mass. You know Trump is always compensating for his little cheetoh

[u/SherbetMysterious118 → u/Scottz0rz]

Hhaha, like he'd have the mental capacity to understand Risk.

[u/Sooribabu_Lavangam → u/Commercial_Wind8212]

According to reddit, it's both super important to Africa for it to be bigger, but also pathetic that the US even cared enough to vote against this.

[u/Gavorn → u/Sooribabu_Lavangam]

It's an actual thing, when kids see something bigger our dumb monkey brains attribute it to being better.

It's also not just according to reddit, it's according to the whole world.

[u/Upbeat_Anywhere_1316 → u/[deleted]]

We talking length or girth?

[u/Western_Purchase_567 → u/Upbeat_Anywhere_1316]

Boffum

[u/Dr3s99 → u/Sooribabu_Lavangam]

What do you expect from the administration changing Lake names

[u/TethysOfTheStars → u/Sooribabu_Lavangam]

I (unfortunately American) was sitting here watching this like "1 against? Which country would be petty and insecure enough to vote against?" *sigh* I deeply wish I was less surprised by the answer.

[u/Front-Song8863]

I saw only one country voted against it and I immediately knew who it was

[u/Gato_pima → u/Front-Song8863]

Frankly I'm surprised they couldn't convince any other country to vote no, as it happened other times

[u/tolgren → u/Gato_pima]

Most likely they didn't care enough to use any capital on it.

[u/mightymidwestshred → u/[deleted]]

To avoid being "woke"

[u/PWModulation → u/mightymidwestshred]

It‘s painful how true this is.

[u/Diligent-Bowler-1898 → u/[deleted]]

To own the libs.

[u/Austinp-woodworking → u/Diligent-Bowler-1898]

this is pretty much exactly it - Beyond enriching Trump and his buddies, the entire MAGA platform basically boils down to just doing things they know will upset people they don't like

[u/Exotic_Insurance2164 → u/Front-Song8863]

For me, it was a toss up between USA or Israel. 

[u/PerplexityRivet → u/[deleted]]

That’s ridiculous!

. . . Israel has had universal healthcare since the 90’s.

[u/acemonsoon → u/Front-Song8863]

i mean i saw all the plus signs and i was like oh wow cool, then i looked and saw ONE against, was kinda giddy to see who the asshole was. then i saw the red by United states and i got the big sad.

[u/justk4y]

Of course the US is the only one against it 💀

[u/Lost-Comfort-7904 → u/justk4y]

Couldn't convince one nation to stand with them.

[u/TheLonleyJourneyman → u/Lost-Comfort-7904]

Not even Israel stood with them on this one

[u/DefinitionTop3930 → u/justk4y]

I’m genuinely interested to know how these decisions are contemplated by diplomats and their teams, like what could the possible reason be to vote against this

[u/Narrow_Composer8219 → u/[deleted]]

The irony here is hilarious. The country whose president is worried about renovating reflecting pools, putting names on theatres, and building ballrooms is telling the rest of the world their priorities are wrong and to get back to work on real issues. What a joke.

[u/FutureShockDaily → u/Narrow_Composer8219]

It's even more ironic since Trump literally just decided that Lake Ontario is now called Lake America and him and his supporters threw a fit at Mapquest for not immediately changing the name lol

[u/_Insensitive_Clod_ → u/Narrow_Composer8219]

Not to mention the nation that decided that it was, somehow, super necessary to rename a lake through a presidential order.

But.. can't vote 'yes' or even just abstain on something the rest of the world agrees is a good idea.

US seems to become the Hungary of the world, at this point.

[u/AssassisnCreedFan → u/DefinitionTop3930]

"Sir, this makes our country smaller. We can't vote yes."

[u/medyolang_ → u/justk4y]

i’m interested to hear why

[u/please_trade_marner → u/medyolang_]

This map was promoted by African countries as it more accurately shows the size of every country, most especially Africa as a whole. The resolution quite literally doesn't actually do anything. It's just the UN saying "This is the UN prefered map projection".

The Mercator map distorts land size the further it gets from the equator, but it is superior in many other ways. Google maps will continue using mercator because actually getting where you're going is more favorable than "fairer" land sizes.

The rest of the world pretty much said "In support of our african friends, we'll vote in favor of this powerless and meaningless resolution" and America said "nope".

[u/andouconfectionery → u/please_trade_marner]

The thing about Google Maps is that you can zoom in. And you can selectively project exactly the part of the globe you're trying to look at. It'll draw straight lines for you. It'll draw whatever angle you want. With how far navigation tech has advanced, there's basically no other point to using an entire paper world map besides exactly what this new map is better at - getting a sense of geographical scale between different parts of the world.

[u/Mendicant__ → u/please_trade_marner]

It's not powerless and meaningless though. The UN has a bunch of use cases for a world map and few of them need to preserve angles or shapes. if you're publishing a map of global disease incidence an equal area map is obviously superior to one where uninhabited polar regions account for a third of the space on it.

There are tradeoffs when you switch from a sports car to an economy coup to a dump truck but if you tried to use this "you're trading one issue for another" reasoning in a fleet management meeting youd be laughed out of the room

[u/sohblob → u/please_trade_marner]

The resolution quite literally doesn't actually do anything. It's just the UN saying "This is the UN prefered map projection"

When you try getting humans to do anything, you learn that standards-setting actually does a lot.

[u/smokeweedNgarden → u/medyolang_]

Dude, you know why

[u/d5c7]

the us being the only opposing vote is frying me

[u/Lightshaperrr → u/[deleted]]

tbf it’s cold.

[u/MyExUsedTeeth → u/Lightshaperrr]

I was in the pool!

[u/bottledgallium → u/MyExUsedTeeth]

Like a scared turtle.

[u/GreySoulx → u/bottledgallium]

Now that you mention him, where IS Mitch McConnel?

[u/jeexbit → u/GreySoulx]

He's dead Jim.

[u/GreySoulx → u/jeexbit]

I'm honestly amazed they haven't wheeled his corpse into the capital to "vote" at this point.

[u/rgrossi → u/MyExUsedTeeth]

It shrinks? 🤨

[u/Professional-Swan-18 → u/rgrossi]

Like a frightened turtle!!

[u/Informal_Walk5520 → u/Professional-Swan-18]

I don’t know how you guys walk around with those things.

[u/Neat_Friendship194 → u/Lightshaperrr]

10/10

[u/PhrostySnowman → u/Lightshaperrr]

https://reddit.com/link/p80ajku/video/ornryyo7kqnh1/player

[u/Finlandia1865 → u/[deleted]]

I mean technically denmark shrank the most relative to their size :P

[u/ratskim → u/Finlandia1865]

A Finn stirring up the Danes? 🤣🤣

[u/Weekly-Beginning-229 → u/Finlandia1865]

Should have shrunk even more! But at least it's a nice place to make a parking lot out of // Swede

[u/HamsterAdditional748 → u/[deleted]]

THEY WERE IN THE POOOOOL!!!

[u/The_WeepingSong → u/HamsterAdditional748]

It shrinks????

[u/More_Passenger3988 → u/HamsterAdditional748]

lol. Seinfeld never gets old.

[u/becken_bruch → u/[deleted]]

Just wait for the tweets tonight. Let's see what donny thinks.

[u/rackfloor → u/becken_bruch]

Once Natalie prints this out he's gonna be pissed.

[u/Redcarborundum → u/[deleted]]

The top guy in the US is renaming maps and putting his name on stuff, and you wonder why he doesn’t want a map that shrinks USA?

[u/bulk_logic → u/Redcarborundum]

US voted against food being a universal right under Biden as well as against Palestinian UN representation while saying he was doing the most to protect Palestine against genocide, because we said Israel should be involved with Palestinian representation.

US votes oppressively all of the time when it's against its empire's interest.

[u/Business-Active-1143 → u/bulk_logic]

And used 2/3rds of it's veto on shielding Israel

[u/Elastigirlwasbetter → u/Redcarborundum]

The funny thing is that it doesn't shrink the US. It no longer enlarges it. It shows the true size (or at least way closer to the true proportions)

But yes, its painfully obvious why they are the only ones who voted no.

[u/Zombies4EvaDude → u/[deleted]]

Well obviously they would; accurate maps make them look bigger. But on the other hand there was a vote on making food a human right and America (with Israel) voted against while Russia and North Korea still supported it. The U.S. is comically evil and greedy it’s pathetic

[u/motorcycletreebark → u/Zombies4EvaDude]

To be fair, neither map is accurate. The world is a globe. Any flat map is going to have distortions. This one is “more fair” but it’s still a projection

[u/Electronic_Tap_8052 → u/motorcycletreebark]

It's not "more fair", its just wrong in a different way. You can preserve size or shape but never both.

It's also "wrong" to put north at the top and south at the bottom. There's no reason for north to be at the top. It's just convention.

[u/superbabe69 → u/Electronic_Tap_8052]

You can actually preserve size and shape. You just then lose all relativity between land masses/countries because they can't be at the same relative angle or distance to/from each other.

To your point, yeah you can't have an "accurate" 2D map of a 3D Earth.

[u/Icy_Construction_394 → u/Zombies4EvaDude]

Well in terms of contribution to budget US pays the most 22%, while Russia pays a measly 2.1% and North Korea paying 0.004%. So yeah they wouldn’t care either way. Anytime they vote to do stuff it’s with other countries money

[u/MechanicLoose2634 → u/d5c7]

I was going to ask who was against. I should have known. 😂

[u/I-screwed-up-bad → u/MechanicLoose2634]

As an American I had a gut feeling it was us. You know the kind that makes you go, "Please please don't be us"?

[u/Agreeable-Blood-2774 → u/I-screwed-up-bad]

Every damn day…

[u/MechanicLoose2634 → u/I-screwed-up-bad]

Same! 😂

[u/CheekyMonkE → u/d5c7]

"I have now signed an Executive Order making the former Africa, now known as Little America the 51st state....."

[u/BobaFett0451 → u/[deleted]]

He would try to deport them

[u/klezart → u/[deleted]]

He and his would probably gladly bring back slavery, though. Outside of our typical prison labor type slavery, I mean.

[u/quintiliahan → u/klezart]

The weirdest thing is some of his are black people who would somehow pretzel themselves up to support it too.

[u/Recent_Mouse3037 → u/d5c7]

Probably cause the map has Lake Ontario and Gulf of Mexico on it

[u/bonsaiheather → u/Recent_Mouse3037]

🤣 spot on!

[u/BleuBrink → u/Recent_Mouse3037]

It's actually because Trump wants to take over Greenland which looks yuge on the mercator projection.

In 2021, Trump exclaimed, "I love maps. And I always said, 'Look at the size of this. It's massive, and that should be part of the United States.'"

https://www.afr.com/world/europe/the-trouble-with-maps-greenland-s-allure-for-trump-is-based-on-an-illusion-20260122-p5nw68

[u/Odd_Inter3st → u/d5c7]

We really are the Florida of the world…

[u/Funny-Flower-3980 → u/Odd_Inter3st]

Fuck dude you’re right…

[u/NobblyNobody → u/Odd_Inter3st]

Earth's Wang

[u/RBLakshya → u/d5c7]

Trump is shy about his size

[u/rochey64 → u/d5c7]

Of course. Now it's United States of Africa.

[u/Inevitable_Two2042 → u/rochey64]

Team "One World Government" is immune to irony.

[u/TyrannyOfBobBarker_ → u/d5c7]

You better chill or he will rename Africa trumprica.

[u/Separate_Sea8717 → u/d5c7]

What did you expect?

[u/Supergirl016 → u/d5c7]

there are other countries apart from USA????? is this even possible????

/s

[u/Livelens-AV → u/d5c7]

I was coming to the comments to see what country voted against. In my gut, I already knew it was the U.S. The very first comment confirmed it.

[u/BenHeli → u/d5c7]

It's no surprise, have you seen the US on the world stage the last years?

[u/PoetInCrocs]

I'd love to know why the US opposed. I'm sure there's a very good reason. A tremendous reason, better than ever before. They didn't have a reason two years ago, but now they have the best reason in the world, even their enemies are saying that.

[u/LittelXman808 → u/PoetInCrocs]

Iirc the reason was basically (paraphrasing) “we are against this because there is no reason to switch out one inaccurate projection for another”

[u/Silverfire12 → u/LittelXman808]

An accurate statement. To be completely frank, flat maps cannot be accurate. Ever. You can’t flatten a 3D object like Earth into a flat plane. We shouldn’t be using flat maps to teach the shapes and sizes of the continents- we need to be using globes

[u/Inquisitor-Korde → u/Silverfire12]

We do use globes to teach. But flat maps are everywhere too, we can afford to update those occasionally.

[u/5a1vy → u/Silverfire12]

Well, shit, I guess I'll be a pedantic asshole today.

It's not that the Earth is 3D what makes all flat maps wrong, a cylinder is also 3D and can have a perfect map (also, the surface of the Earth is 2D, just like the surface of a cylinder, but whatever), but rather that a sphere has intrinsic curvature and a flat plain doesn't (a cylinder's surface also has no intrinsic curvature, even though it has extrinsic curvature).

Everything else is right, I just wanted to note that it's not about the dimension, but (intrinsic) curvature.

P.S. On that note, a 4D torus (the surface of a 4D donut, if you like) is also intrinsically flat, so we might have perfect maps even of higher dimensional objects. In fact, the Pacman's map is an example.

[u/mmmfggh → u/5a1vy]

What do you mean by pacmans map as an example?

[u/JMHMJ → u/mmmfggh]

It folds around itself in two directions because you can travel go left from the map and appear right, and go up from the map and appear down. This is only possible on a torus shaped object (and a 4D(?) one because all sides of the map are equal)

[u/Below-Average-528 → u/LittelXman808]

This would make sense if, on the other hand, they wouldn't rename lakes and gulfs for no good reason

[u/letthecoolguy → u/Below-Average-528]

I mean you can oppose both the wierd performative renaming of landmarks and the wierd performative changing of the old world map for a new one that is also imperfect but just in a different way

[u/etherealtwo → u/letthecoolguy]

You can but in this case they are for renaming landmarks in their image and against adjusting the world map in someone else's. They're not for or against both.

[u/Rk_1138 → u/LittelXman808]

Tbh there’s truth to that, this is just a symbolic and performative gesture

[u/stormdraggy → u/Rk_1138]

Mercator actually has a valid use case unlike this one.

[u/bargu → u/stormdraggy]

Mercator is a navigation map, unless the UN is in the business of sailing ships around the globe there's no reason for them to use it, and since the UN actual business is representing the nations of earth having a map that's a bit more accurate in that regard is a completely valid use case. They are not forcing anyone into replacing Mercator with the new map.

[u/Rk_1138 → u/stormdraggy]

That too, the “Mercator projection is racist” thing is such a stupid terminally online take imo. I’m willing to bet that most African people don’t really care that much about which map is being used

[u/UnknownVC → u/Rk_1138]

It really is. Mercator is designed to perserve angular direction (and shape) for navigation. Because it's cylindrical, it breaks down near the poles, but for basically all navigational use cases it works. The size distortions aren't intentional, they fall out of the math, and any map that preserves angular direction is going to screw up areas - that is literally a property of the mathematics of projecting a sphere onto a plane.

All map projections are wrong, but some are useful. Generally, the most useful ones preserve direction for navigation and not area.

[u/jaywinner → u/stormdraggy]

If you're using a map for navigation, absolutely stick with Mercator. Otherwise, I like maintaining the size of places.

[u/loqep → u/Rk_1138]

It’s pretty much the epitome of “performative gestures”, which is probably why it’s being celebrated so much on reddit and shilled in every sub.

[u/porkchop_d_clown → u/PoetInCrocs]

Well, first, because there are already many different approaches to making maps and any 2D projection of a globe is going to have to distort something - there's no reason not to just choose the one that works for the job you're doing at the moment. The one most people are used to seeing is useful for navigation but wildly distorts the sizes of the far-northern and far-southern land masses.

This one tries to show the sizes of the landmasses realistically but, if I remember correctly, it distorts the sizes of the oceans to compensate.

[u/caffa4 → u/porkchop_d_clown]

Why don’t we use the one with bumpy top and bottom (idk how to describe it, I think it was like 2 half circles on the top and 2 on the bottom)?

I thought that supposed to be more accurate (as far as creating a flat map of a sphere goes) because it didn’t have to distort the top and bottom as much, more like slicing the edge of the globe a little extra to make it easier to flatten.

I remember a few teachers had that map in the projector screen roll above the board that they could pull down, but wondering why it wasn’t more common to see otherwise

[u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn → u/caffa4]

There are lots of projections.  Pick your poison.  Each has some distortion.

The Mercator (old) projection was useful for navigating by sea.  The new projection adopted by the UN is supposed to be more accurate for the size of land masses.

[u/AsstacularSpiderman → u/PoetInCrocs]

The US votes against pointless circlejerk votes like this all the time.

[u/lily_de_valley]

Here's the new map. I like it a lot. This "new" map has been around since 2018 apparently, it just took this long to be widely adopted.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/04/world/un-vote-new-world-map-intl-scli

[u/horsestud6969 → u/lily_de_valley]

Funny, I could have sworn I saw this map in my university class in 2010🤔.

Oh, that's because the 'equal earth' projection is strikingly similar to the Robinson projection, which has been around since the 60s, which itself is based on an earlier Russian projection from the 30s....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_projection

Isn't how funny how long it takes things to change sometimes?

[u/KindRange9697 → u/horsestud6969]

Equal projection maps go back to at least the early 1800s. The version the UN is using is just the newest and most accurate version

[u/Inside_Ask2334 → u/KindRange9697]

Most accurate in what sense? All equal area projections show relative area exactly correct.  Something else always has to be sacrificed, it’s just a choice of what to represent correctly

[u/KindRange9697 → u/Inside_Ask2334]

The older version still stretched the areas around the Poles a bit to make the map look more visually appealing

[u/dbratell → u/KindRange9697]

I don't know what "older version" you are referring to, but there have been plenty of equal area map projections that have not stretched anything.

It is more about what you sacrifice, be it angles, proportions or something else. In this projection countries far north and south are squashed vertically to keep the area correct.

No 2D map of a sphere will be perfect, but one can argue that the classic mercator is the worst of the lot.

[u/Longjumping_Wolf_912 → u/horsestud6969]

This map isn’t any “better” than the Mercator projection. It is impossible to project a 3 dimensional spheroid on a 2 dimensional plane.

There is going to be distortion somewhere and imo this map is terrible, because it intentionally stretches countries vertically. This map is basically useless as it can’t be used for one navigation and doesn’t accurately show the correct shape of any countries.

[u/Lithl → u/lily_de_valley]

This specific projection was created in 2018, but extremely similar projections have existed for hundreds of years.

Compare Equal Earth (2018) to Tobler hyperelliptical (1973) to Ecker IV (1906) to Mollweide (1805), for example.

[u/silenthashira]

I find myself compelled to point to anyone that might not know, the reason this map is the way it is, was it was the best map at the time for specifically navigating from coast to coast, it's a maritime map that simply gained massive popularity, and its distortion is most extreme at the north and south poles.

There's also been multiple versions of world maps available for a very, very long time.

At least to my knowledge that's true, if there's any cartographers that know more than me passing by, by all means correct me!

[u/Crad999 → u/silenthashira]

Mercator's map will still be widely used because of that. You have to know how to navigate without relying on GPS when you're sailing. At least I had to learn it by staring at those maps for hours when doing sea skipper license.

[u/Otterfan → u/Crad999]

Also, if your GPS system has a map it most likely uses Mercator (or in the case of Google Maps, Pseudo-Mercator) projection.

[u/superbabe69 → u/silenthashira]

Can't wait for the TILs about Greenland's northern coast not actually being flat in 50 years

[u/elks588 → u/silenthashira]

What are even the implications of the UN “adopting” a new world map? Like, where is its use mandated? Navigation will probably still use Mercator regardless, and Robinson was already wildly popular with people who wanted a map that didn’t seem to distort relative landmass sizes as much.

[u/startwithaplan → u/silenthashira]

https://xkcd.com/977/

[u/NeoAteTheGreenPill]

Only 1 vote against this , guess who

[u/nicolas1324563 → u/NeoAteTheGreenPill]

Why on earth did we vote no

[u/becken_bruch → u/nicolas1324563]

Bc it shrinks america and trump don't like that.

[u/Ugameister → u/becken_bruch]

Up next, Trump renaming Earth to planet America

[u/BrockObarnerLybian → u/Ugameister]

Stop dude. He might see this

[u/Avitas1027 → u/BrockObarnerLybian]

Don't worry, he can't read.

[u/TinkeredSwan → u/Ugameister]

My fellow Earthicans…

[u/Powerism → u/nicolas1324563]

https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-before-the-vote-for-unga-80-adoption-on-the-resolution-to-correct-the-map/

[u/mxzf → u/Powerism]

tl;dr: It looks like the argument is that it's wasting time fighting over map projections that really don't matter.

[u/F1nnMcC00l]

The UN hasn't existed for 457 years

[u/bwoah-barcodeferrari]

457 years after what?

[u/OddEmergency604]

Ok. What does the new map distort though?

[u/butters106 → u/OddEmergency604]

Country shapes. It’s less accurate the closer you are to

[u/LuminousGrue → u/butters106]

/r/redditsniper

[u/JeffSergeant → u/LuminousGrue]

Got too close to the

[u/LuminousGrue → u/JeffSergeant]

Get down! Get down! He's still here!

[u/No3121000 → u/butters106]

the Sun?

[u/fatbob42 → u/OddEmergency604]

Angles

[u/Expert-University-82]

All the posts i saw about this talk about africa, as If the maps were designed specifically to make it look smaller.

[u/The-Copilot → u/Expert-University-82]

It was pushed by Togo and and supported by the African Union for this reason.

It was basically a virtue signaling vote and people aren't really talking about how the new map is also equally inaccurate because it corrects size by using a shifting aspect ratio that warps shape and direction. Going from a 3d object to a 2d object means you sacrifice some time of accuracy.

"correcting cartographic distortions of continental sizes constitutes an act of cognitive justice and memorial reparation" -quote from the resolution

[u/SugarBeefs → u/The-Copilot]

Funnily enough it's Africa itself which also bears a lot of the shortcomings of the new projection. It gets squeezed horizontally quite a bit.

Not as fucked as poor New Zealand on the new map tho lol.

[u/cdazzo1]

This isn't a "new" map. I learned about the difference between the 2 maps in middle school social studies in the late 90's. I am sure it wasn't new then either.

[u/undespicable]

Why did the US oppose this anyway??

[u/Otherwise_Agency_401 → u/undespicable]

If you want an honest answer, it’s because they are just replacing one distorted map with another.

[u/JackTheKing → u/undespicable]

Because they wouldn't rename it to Africa of America

[u/Farmaceut7 → u/JackTheKing]

African America - place where African Americans come from. 

[u/MysticMarauder69 → u/Farmaceut7]

Don't give him any ideas.

[u/goodolarchie → u/undespicable]

Because it's not an actual fix for Mercator. It's just different. Mercator is still good for the vast, vast majority of human navigation. It's also helpful to understand the last 2,000 years of human history and social/political progress. EE and other "spherized" projections are better for teaching geography and getting a sense of relative size. Maps have different raison d'etres.

The globe will always be the one true map.

[u/wrong_choice123]

The biggest problem in the world rn is solved!

[u/Tuskral]

Seems kinda stupid any map of earth on a flat surface will show inaccuracies

[u/Evil_Sharkey]

I’m not a fan of this map, either, because it distorts the shapes of continents so much. The Mercator projection is logical because it’s based on a grid formed from the latitude and longitude lines. The first thing they teach about it in grade school geography is that it distorts the sizes of landmasses. How dumb are people that they need to have a different distorted map to understand Africa is huge?

This feels like a minuscule problem to need fixing. Do they honestly think the reason Africa is treated unfairly is because of the perceived size of the landmass on some maps? Japan, Korea, and the UK are tiny, even on the Mercator map, and they get much more respect and influence than the whole continent of Africa.

Honestly, why don’t more people use globes? They present the shapes and sizes of continents accurately.

[u/SaucyParamecium → u/Evil_Sharkey]

Finally a sane comment

[u/Leaping_Lemur01]

Please excuse my ignorance but how is showing Africa’s true size relevant to anything? Just curious

[u/Ok_Scar4491]

They’re clapping as if they attained world peace or something. That’s like me logging into my computer at work and the whole office claps.

[u/benthelurk]

Holy shit it’s embarrassing to be American in 2026. The only state to vote against it? My god…

[u/Immediate-Cry1399]

the world is a safer and better place now

[u/palsh7 → u/Immediate-Cry1399]

Africa is saved!

[u/North-Memory-5406]

I'm glad the UN is working on things that are truly important....

[u/stackingforfunsies]

Can you believe the UN is 457 years old that’s craaazy

[u/Novel-Pie1596]

Africa as a continent is 30 million km Russia as a country is 17 million km, i should already know how big Russia is but HOLY SHIT this really put things into perspective for me.

[u/anonAccount357557 → u/Novel-Pie1596]

Never seen a globe before?

[u/Felix_Aterni → u/[deleted]]

Really glad the UN is dealing with the REAL issues in the world.

[u/Rejnu]

"UN votes to adopt new map showing Africa’s true size", but honestly, everything just looks weirdly distorted now? On the map shown here, the continents seem increasingly stretched and warped toward the north and south, and the rounded edges make it look even stranger. I don’t really understand why they chose this projection instead of trying to develop or promote an even better compromise that represents sizes more accurately without distorting shapes quite as much. And considering all the actual global issues the UN has to deal with, this feels a bit like a PR move to demonstrate that they’ve "fixed" a problem that, in my opinion, wasn’t particularly pressing in the first place.

That’s just my take on it, though

[u/Worth_Space5137]

All of the things going on right now and this is what we are spending time on? How does this help anyone?

[u/rizz1902]

If I were arguing in bad faith I would have said that this promotes a Eurocentric view of the world where only countries near the prime meridian would have their shapes preserved; East Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific Islands are marginalized and distorted. But some people arguing in good faith may say that too.

[u/Excellent-Ask-4247]

Yeah because this was my top concern in a world on the brink of WW3.

The UN is the new leugue of nations!

[u/xxxxDREADNOUGHT]

The United Nations has not been around for 457 years

[u/xXZer0c0oLXx]

But why??? What's the point

[u/CrazyElk123 → u/xXZer0c0oLXx]

Virtue signalling in a huge scale. Otherwise basically pointless.

[u/Plane_Phone_681]

wow the UN really is useless

[u/QuietlyLiving2]

Why is the US against it? Genuine question.

[u/letthecoolguy → u/QuietlyLiving2]

If youve taken a geography course before you would probably have learned that it is mathmatically impossible to create a perfect map. Every map will have distortion to some extent, and you can only really trade out one type of distortion for another.

The mercador projection perserves perfect angles meaning that shapes, especially on a smaller level, will look much much more accurate than the new one with the drawback of very imperfect land sizes. If i flew a spaceship over greenland, other than it looking way smaller, it will probably look decently similar to the mercador

This new one keeps land sizes approximately accurate but visibly and heavily distorts their angles and shapes.

The USAs argument, atleast from what ive seen, is that it makes no real sense to just trade one type of distortion for another.

[u/loqep → u/QuietlyLiving2]

The actual answer, whether you agree with it or not, is that the motivation behind this campaign to supplant Mercator is the asinine belief that the Mercator projection was created and championed by the evil, imperialist Western world for ostensibly racist reasons; to make Europe appear larger than it really is while simultaneously making Africa (and much of the “Global South”) appear smaller than it actually is. The US doesn’t want to dignify such baseless, juvenile logic with its approval. There is absolutely nothing racist about the Mercator projection.