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The world map is changing: The UN has backed replacing the 500-year-old Mercator projection with the accurate Equal Earth projection (thelemmy.club)
submitted 20 hours ago by to c/interestingasfuck@lemmy.world
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[–] 58 points 15 hours ago (6 children)

Every few years this comes up again, and every time some nonsense about colonialism or whatever is brought up.

There is no "true" size or "true" shape on a 2D projection of Earth's very 3D surface. We used the one projection for so long because of how coastal shapes don't get bent way out of proportion, but like with any projection, messes with the other aspects.

Rather than making spicy click bait titles every so often about the "true" projection of the Earth, how about we teach kids at school what it takes to project something 3D on a 2D surface?

And just use a fucking globe!

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  • [–] 12 points 8 hours ago

    I mean, before the advent of GPS, ships at sea got a "fix" of their position by taking two measurements: north/south latitude (via a sextant when the sun was visible) and east/west longitude (via a set of very accurate clocks that showed the time in Greenwich England, which could be easily compared to the time aboard ship). Mercator maps are just a grid showing where all the land is as a function of these two measurements on the X and Y axes. Any other projection would have just meant a lot more work figuring out where shit was, which is why Mercator became "the" map. It had absolutely nothing to do with any attempt to make Europe appear dominant -- Europe's dominance when these maps came into existence was too obvious and unquestioned to need any parlor tricks.

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  • [–] 31 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (6 children)

    As a neurodivergent map person, I'm over-aware of the difficulties of map projection. And I agree that simply calling this new projection 'accurate' is misleading

    But at the same time, the use of the Mercator as the standard default map in situations that have nothing to do with ocean navigation for literally hundreds of years is absolutely a reflection of the relative power of the Global North, and can't be dismissed as 'nonsense about colonialism'

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  • [–] 6 points 11 hours ago (1 child)

    The Mercator projection really seems to be Africa-centric if anything

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  • [–] 3 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

    In what way? It inflates the size of areas as they get further away from the equator, resulting in Africa being portrayed as relatively much smaller than it is compared to Europe and North America

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  • [–] 7 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

    Africa is by far the most accurately portrayed part of the map, and it’s right in the center.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 hours ago

    The center - east to west - is 0 degrees longitude, defined as the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. This does also go through West Africa

    The center - north to south - is 0 degrees latitude, defined as the equator.

    Because of this, Africa is central on the vast majority of world map projections including the Mercator and the Equal Earth.

    Accuracy is relative. The Mercator distorts areas bigger the further away they are from the equator. This exaggerates the size of the USA, Europe etc compared to Africa.

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  • [–] 4 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

    so coming from you pleasr tell us what would be the best way to project an as accurate as possible world map? I mena both in 3D version and as a 2D version

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  • [–] 5 points 11 hours ago (1 child)

    Pick one that suits your application.

    If you're not using it to engage in navigation, Equal Earth is a sensible default.

    Tools like Google maps are a bit thornier. They're used for navigation, but generally not in a way where angles matter. I could see someone getting themselves into trouble because the angles are screwy. But then again if Google cared about that sort of case, we wouldn't have the recent story of the Gemini hikers.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 hours ago*

    yeah, i tried to figure out the angle between two points off google maps the other day. it fucking sucked. i ended up using another website that was basically a frontend for doing it.

    i'm still not sure if it was right. if i go orienteering again, i'm bringing paper maps. precharted routes and angles drawn in so i don't have to look anything up out in the field. orienteering off your phone is stupid.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 hours ago (1 child)

    A 3D version would be a globe. A 2D version is inherently inaccurate because it's 2D and the earth is not. You are free to pick your poison in the manner of your projection but you will always loose something.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 hours ago

    So when it comes to picking a 2D poison which ome would be currently best? The new UN map ? or ....

    Or would a better solution for 2D be a 'collection' of pictures of the Earth from numerous different angles? And we just look at each of the angles seperately as their own seperate 2D picture of different parts of the Earth? So Im talking we supposedly take 14 or 20 or more different pictures of the Earth from 14 or 20 or more different angles of the Earth then we just lay out each of those pictures and it is up to the viewer to look at each picture of each angles of the Earth and to do what they can in their head with those pictures. Bad idea, good idea?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 hours ago (1 child)

    You know it’s the Reverse Mercator right?

    It’s been the best way to transform a curved surface to a plane surface in a way that people understand.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 hours ago

    It is complete nonsense. Use makes something standard, and maps have most been used in navigation. So it naturally becomes the default.

    This is how ALL defaults become defaults, even when they're wrong.

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  • [–] 1 point 14 hours ago (2 children)

    What better alternative projection they could use at the time for navigation?

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  • [–] 3 points 11 hours ago (1 child)

    I don't know? That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the UN using it not for navigation in 2026

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

    But at the same time, the use of the Mercator as the standard default map in situations that have nothing to do with ocean navigation for literally hundreds of years

    My question continues that thread.
    And my point (subtle it may be) is that when something is wildly useful, it sticks.
    Despite not being universally good.

    And to change from it you need more than just a slight advantage.
    That's why the UN didn't think about changing map projection.

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  • [–] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 child)

    You might note that the present is, in fact, not 500 years ago.

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  • [–] 1 point 13 hours ago (1 child)

    Is that the answer to my question?

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  • [–] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 child)

    If you’re asking me to tell you the best way to navigate 500 years ago, I can’t help you because I’m not a historian. The point is that really has absolutely no bearing on how we should use maps today in the present.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 hours ago (1 child)

    Isn't this incorrect though? As far as I am aware it is possible to represent true size (equal-area) or true shape (conformal), but not both at the same time

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  • [–] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 child)

    Yeah, isn't that what I said?

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  • [–] 4 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

    I don't really understand the difference, but Greenland is not bigger than Australia right?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 12 minutes ago) (1 child)

    No

    Think of opening the earth up onto a cylinder and stretching it out and over its surface, then flattening that cylinder out.

    It will be equal in the centre, but distorted at the ends.

    The projection we use is the Reverse Transverse Mercator, as its ‘cylinder’ sits vertical so to speak, distorting the poles. Horizontally, it would distort across the Equator in a couple places, which wouldn’t be useable.

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  • [–] 4 points 14 hours ago* (1 child)

    For political uses new projection is better. UN body are not going to use that to navigate.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    The only reason to have a default map is political.

    People actually using maps and GIS pick whatever projection suits their needs - which is not Mercantor most of the time to begin with. I work with GIS a lot and never use it, unless forced by some API. But even then, reprojecting is trivial.

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