The Correct The Map Project
Jan. 10th, 2026 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneMaps are interesting things. But world maps can be difficult and problematic.
The problem is that the Earth is not round. It is oblate, semi-spherical, more like an egg. It doesn't project well onto a flat surface. Most world maps use the Mercator Projection.
And that's a problem. So maps are distorted to make them fit a 2D surface. Various projections have been used, but good OLD Mercator is the one used most commonly And now we get down to the brass tacks. The Mercator Projection is almost FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OLD. And no one has been arsed to update it to something more realistic. It is grossly unrepresentative to some countries and areas because, guess what!, white men rule/ruled the world. For example, Mercator shows Greenland (area=2.1ish million sq kilometers) almost as large as Africa, which is almost 15 times the size of Greenland. Similar distortions appear throughout.
Well, the Equal Earth people have put in a huge amount of work and redrawn the world map for a new projection. And they've produced several new maps that are quite cool. You can get Africa playing a large central role, the Americas more centered forward, the Oceania meridian with Australia centered forward, and Oceania with the South Pole on top! (a personal favorite of mine - who gets to proclaim that North is up?!)
https://correctthemap.org/
https://equal-earth.com/
The maps can be ordered here:
https://longitudemaps.com/pages/equal-earth-tom-patterson
The problem is that the Earth is not round. It is oblate, semi-spherical, more like an egg. It doesn't project well onto a flat surface. Most world maps use the Mercator Projection.
And that's a problem. So maps are distorted to make them fit a 2D surface. Various projections have been used, but good OLD Mercator is the one used most commonly And now we get down to the brass tacks. The Mercator Projection is almost FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OLD. And no one has been arsed to update it to something more realistic. It is grossly unrepresentative to some countries and areas because, guess what!, white men rule/ruled the world. For example, Mercator shows Greenland (area=2.1ish million sq kilometers) almost as large as Africa, which is almost 15 times the size of Greenland. Similar distortions appear throughout.
Well, the Equal Earth people have put in a huge amount of work and redrawn the world map for a new projection. And they've produced several new maps that are quite cool. You can get Africa playing a large central role, the Americas more centered forward, the Oceania meridian with Australia centered forward, and Oceania with the South Pole on top! (a personal favorite of mine - who gets to proclaim that North is up?!)
https://correctthemap.org/
https://equal-earth.com/
The maps can be ordered here:
https://longitudemaps.com/pages/equal-earth-tom-patterson
no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 08:08 pm (UTC)Mercator wanted (and got) a projection you could get true bearings from, and lived in what is now the Netherlands so, in effect, started there.
All the good reasons to pick another projection to day exist, but Mercator-the-person really isn't to be blamed for wanting to facilitate navigation.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 05:49 am (UTC)Except people not understanding how projections distort, and think the map is the reality.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 05:44 am (UTC)No, not at all. I agree. The biases of the world always win, and it was a successful and useful projection. But it's long past time for a more realistic projection.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-10 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 05:48 am (UTC)I was, and still am, a huge Australia fan and absolutely loved the maps with Australia on top! Many, many years ago I learned that my nephew was getting obsessed with AU and gave him such a map, at that time there was a map store in Phoenix and you could find such things.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 01:36 am (UTC)Hugs, Jon
no subject
Date: 2026-01-11 05:50 am (UTC)The areas are adjusted to more correct perspectives.