The United States became the only country that voted against the draft resolution of the UN General Assembly in support of the cartographic projection of Equal Earth.
This document, which was proposed for voting as part of the Correct the Map initiative, regulates a more accurate mapping of the size of Africa and a number of other regions of the world.
The resolution was approved by the world community on September 4. She calls for the wider use of equal-sized cartographic projections that preserve the real ratios of the areas of countries and continents.
164 states voted for the document, 6 countries — Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Serbia, Lithuania, Estonia — abstained, only the United States was against. Before the vote, the American permanent representative to the UN called for the document to be completely rejected.
According to Washington, this is not about a neutral attempt to correct cartographic distortions, but about part of a broader "ideological agenda."
The American side also expressed the opinion that such resolutions distract the UN from issues of international peace, prosperity and interstate relations.
Meanwhile, the Correct the Map initiative has a purely cartographic origin. It arose against the background of the long-term use of the Mercator projection, which is convenient for navigation, but distorts the size of the territories.
When displayed on maps, regions at high latitudes visually increase, and those located at the equator decrease. As a result, Greenland on the map turned out to be almost comparable in size to Africa, although the continent's area is about 14 times larger.
The UNGA resolution is of a recommendatory nature. It does not prohibit Mercator projection and does not require replacing existing maps. We are talking about the recommendation to use equal-sized projections on maps in cases where it is important to correctly compare the sizes of territories.
Earlier, EADaily reported that the UN General Assembly, on the initiative of Kazakhstan, proclaimed the International Day of Greening the Earth. The resolution was co-sponsored by 32 States from various regions of the world.