African Union endorses campaign to finally fix the maps that massively understate how big the continent really is

Global·AfricaAfrican Union endorses campaign to finally fix the maps that massively understate how big the continent really isBy Mark BancherauBy The Associated PressBy Mark BancherauBy The Associated Press Africa is actually too small on most maps because of the jection.Stefano Guidi/Getty ImagesOn the Mercator jection, one of the world’s most maps, Greenland and Africa appear to be the same size

But on the Equal Earth jection showing continents in their true portions, 14 Greenlands would easily fit inside the African continent

Criticism that the Mercator jection does not accurately reflect Africa’s real size is not new

The African Union, the continent’s diplomatic organization with 55 member countries, endorsed the campaign last week in what advocates call a major milestone

Here is what to know the effort to show Africa’s real size to the world

Africa appears too small on most modern maps The Mercator map was created in the 16th century by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator

Designed to help European navigators at sea, the map distorted landmasses by enlarging regions near the poles such as North America and Greenland while shrinking Africa and South America

The Mercator jection is still common in classrooms and platforms

The mobile app still defaults to the Mercator jection

Groups campaign to replace the global map Two African advocacy groups, Africa No and Speak Up Africa, launched a campaign in April to push schools, ed by international organizations and media outlets, to use the Equal Earth jection, which it says more accurately reflects the true size of Africa. “Correcting the map is not only an African issue

It is a matter of truth and accuracy that concerns the entire world

When whole generations, in Africa and elsewhere, learn from a distorted map, they develop a biased view of Africa’s role in the world,” said Fara Ndiaye, co-founder and deputy executive director of Speak Up Africa

For non-Africans, a shrunken representation of Africa minimizes its demographic, economic and strategic significance, Ndiaye added

The African Union endorsed the campaign on Aug. 14, the largest body to sign on to the campaign so far, marking a significant milestone for the Change The Map campaign

Geographers say the Mercator jection is outdated Mark Monmonier, a Syracuse University fessor of geography, said the Mercator jection is obsolete and geographers have long advised people to not use it as a world map. “It was a useful tool in the 16th century, because it has straight lines, giving navigators a line of constant direction to sail along,” Monmonier said. “But outside of that very narrow application, there is no point in using it.” While maps ing the curvature of the earth, the Equal Earth jection, offer a more accurate scale of continents true sizes, he nonetheless warned that bar graphs remain the best way to compare the sizes of different continents. “When you put irregularly shaped areas on a flat paper, people are going to have a hard time accurately comparing the size of landmasses,” Monmonier said

Explore this year's list.