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African Union joins calls to end use of Mercator map that shrinks continent’s size (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
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[–] 86 points 1 year ago (3 children)

“It’s [the Mercator projection] the world’s longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop.”

No matter how we cut it though, all 2D projections will have some kind of distortion. They opted to preserve area, while the Mercator preserves angles. Arguably it is less important today to preserve angles, as we have automatic navigation systems. There are some alternatives that also preserve the area: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/The-Equal-Earth-compared-to-similar-equal-area-pseudocylindrical-projections.png

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  • [–] 26 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Right. What people need to understand that any globe put on a flat surface will be distorted. Their proposal is just as distorted as the Mercator, just in area vs angles as you stated.

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  • [+] -18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    The Mercator is a propaganda campaign to make Christian countries look big and powerful. Ask yourself why is it only “Christian” countries that are distorted.

    Edit: should have put this /s

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago

    Maps were used for navigation, which meant angles needed to be preserved. Christian nations colonised a lot, meaning they needed to have maps for navigation a lot too.

    This isn't some weird propaganda campaign, that makes no sense. Try making an angle-preserving map that doesn't wildly distort the north and south of the world.

    Besides, not sure how Christian the icy wastes of Greenland and Antarctica are.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The Mercator projection is good in what it was made for: Navigation. You know. The whole purpose of maps.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Navigation isn't the only purpose of maps. You can display geographical, social, economic, and a whole host of other datasets on to maps. And since maps with fidelity to lat/long lines are no longer a requirement for navigation, there's a good argument for accurately displaying relative positioning and size.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    When was the last time you used a global map for navigation?

    It's not even terribly good for that, as when traveling at global scales, most of us travel along great circle paths that end up looking wrong on the Mercator protection.

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