▲ 104 ▼ UN to vote on adopting new world map that shows Africa’s true scale (www.theguardian.com) submitted 2 months ago by DamnianWayne@lemmy.world to c/world 21 comments fedilink hide all child comments https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/04/un-vote-world-map-mercator-equal-earth-africa
[–] celeste@kbin.earth 11 points 2 months ago (3 children) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckert_IV_projection neat! permalink fedilink source hideshow 3 child comments replies: [–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 months ago (2 children) Ew, everything at the equator is so skinny. IRL Africa is about as wide as it's tall; it's as far from Benghazi to Cape Town as from the mouth of the Gambia to the tip of the Horn of Africa, but on this map it's around a 2:3 ratio. Ironically, the most natural-looking part of this map is Europe. All other landmasses are either at a latitude that stretches the proportions or at a longitude that skews them. Thanks I hate it already. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Well there is no way to preserve the scale of all land masses properly since you're projecting a 3D object onto a 2D plane. This projection at least partially addresses the issue of land masses near the poles being away to big than they actually are. I feel geographically Europe is in a position where the distortions are minimized, at least in the case of projections that don't have weird layouts. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago Behrmann would make a lot more sense. The average person lives at 30 degrees latitude, and it works at all longitudes. If you're in the 6% of the population that lives above 45 degrees latitude, I agree the distortion kind of sucks, so please look at the flag of the United Nations until you feel better. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 months ago (2 children) Ew, everything at the equator is so skinny. IRL Africa is about as wide as it's tall; it's as far from Benghazi to Cape Town as from the mouth of the Gambia to the tip of the Horn of Africa, but on this map it's around a 2:3 ratio. Ironically, the most natural-looking part of this map is Europe. All other landmasses are either at a latitude that stretches the proportions or at a longitude that skews them. Thanks I hate it already. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Well there is no way to preserve the scale of all land masses properly since you're projecting a 3D object onto a 2D plane. This projection at least partially addresses the issue of land masses near the poles being away to big than they actually are. I feel geographically Europe is in a position where the distortions are minimized, at least in the case of projections that don't have weird layouts. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago Behrmann would make a lot more sense. The average person lives at 30 degrees latitude, and it works at all longitudes. If you're in the 6% of the population that lives above 45 degrees latitude, I agree the distortion kind of sucks, so please look at the flag of the United Nations until you feel better. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 child) Well there is no way to preserve the scale of all land masses properly since you're projecting a 3D object onto a 2D plane. This projection at least partially addresses the issue of land masses near the poles being away to big than they actually are. I feel geographically Europe is in a position where the distortions are minimized, at least in the case of projections that don't have weird layouts. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 1 child comment replies: [–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago Behrmann would make a lot more sense. The average person lives at 30 degrees latitude, and it works at all longitudes. If you're in the 6% of the population that lives above 45 degrees latitude, I agree the distortion kind of sucks, so please look at the flag of the United Nations until you feel better. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago Behrmann would make a lot more sense. The average person lives at 30 degrees latitude, and it works at all longitudes. If you're in the 6% of the population that lives above 45 degrees latitude, I agree the distortion kind of sucks, so please look at the flag of the United Nations until you feel better. permalink fedilink source parent