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[-] oxysis 114 points 1 month ago

I mean the problem with any projection of earth onto a 2d simplified shape surface is that it will be inherently distorted. The Mercator projection is scaled properly towards the equator but has to scale upwards more and more toward the poles to be able to fit the given area.

Even their own map, which for some reason isn’t shown in either the video or on the main page, isn’t accurate either. It’s better but is also warped in its own way, it would be nice if they had a little blurb that says something to that effect.

Here’s the actual map projection they are pushing for; https://equal-earth.com/equal-earth-projection.html

[-] teft@piefed.social 133 points 1 month ago

Fuck that. Let's go for the euler spiral.

[-] T156@lemmy.world 57 points 1 month ago

It seems like the kind of thing that would give rise to the ~ Earth movement

[-] Gerblat@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago
[-] BurntWits@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 month ago

Tildearth desktop wallpaper

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[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

I mean, I'm not exactly thrilled about it erasing my country.. Did a cartographer from New Zealand make this as an act of revenge? 🤔

[-] Susaga@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Which country? It seems to all be there. It might be cut in half or upside down, but it's all there.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

Oh wait, there it is! I was too disoriented to spot it, Denmark 😄

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[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 44 points 1 month ago
[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 month ago

We could also have made Mercator maps of varying position, but that might not center Europe.

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[-] realitista@lemmus.org 86 points 1 month ago

Since this article gave you everything except the one thing you want to see, here's what the Equal Earth projection looks like

[-] volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz 42 points 1 month ago

Yes, it is an awful website with an awful promotion video. Sizing the countries down but not connecting them and not showing you the world map as it would look like in total is absolutely not furthering the cause. I'm so mad I'm not sure I even want to sign the petition to be honest. Granted, my school atlas did not have the mercator projection.

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[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Damn Russia is still that big? I thought the distortion played a large part in its size on the original map.

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[-] cerement@slrpnk.net 72 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
[-] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 20 points 1 month ago

I didn't think I'd ever have a favourite map but here we are.

[-] BlueEther@no.lastname.nz 12 points 1 month ago

That projection shows how vast the Pacific is

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[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 71 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This will never happen as long as Big Greenland pulls the strings of power in the cartography world.

[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago

And they're very big. Have you looked at a map lately? Do you expect tiny little Africa to stand up to that?

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[-] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 50 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

By signing the petition you take a stand against a false narrative that downplays Africa’s vast size and diversity as the second-largest continent, reducing its perceived importance in global politics and economics. You can correct the narrative.

I'll be real here, I have no idea what these people are talking about. The way Africa looked on maps has never had any bearing on my or probably anyone's thinking of how important the continent is in global politics or economics. If someone thinks "country/continent looks small so they must be unimportant," they are either a child or a fool. Or both.

[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

I somewhat agree, Africa never looked small imo. However Russia, Greenland, Canada etc are so comically oversized that it absolutely makes a difference imo.

[-] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

Its a distorted representation of what the Earth looks like, and regardless of the way the sphere of our Earth is displayed on a 2D plane, it will always be distorted.

I don't see any tangible benefit from changing what has already worked and is globally accepted for many decades. It seems kinda nitpicky, or like these people are clout chasing or something.

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[-] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The way Africa looked on maps has never had any bearing on my or probably anyone's thinking of how important the country is in global politics or economics.

Africa isn't a country though, it's a continent with dozens of independent, distinct and diverse countries in it.

And one possible impact of the continent being represented much smaller than it really is, is people thinking of Africa as a single country.

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[-] logi@lemmy.world 44 points 1 month ago

Faithfully projecting a globe onto a flat surface is impossible and all projections have to balance a number of compromises. Mercator retains compass directions and the shapes of land masses but entirely sacrifices relative scale between equatorial regions and polar regions. This makes it great for navigating a 17th century vessel. Other projections strike a different balance, like this one, and sacrifice compass direction and land mass shapes in order to perfectly retain scale. On this map, my little Arctic island looks like someone stepped on it.

IMO a balanced projection will compromise on all the nice properties a projection can have, and if that isn't acceptable, then get a globe.

[-] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago

i think the best solution (besides globes which are impractical on screens/posters) is having no standard, expose kids in school to 3 or 4 different projections so they learn there's no standard and all protections are as valid and all with drawbacks and advantages.

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[-] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 31 points 1 month ago

CMV: this movement only matters to stupid people, and does not qualify as something "I should know".

[-] jwmgregory@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

maybe a little abrasive in tone but i don’t totally disagree, this is kind of fucking dumb and i don’t understand why i’m seeing this everywhere rn.

mercator hasn’t been ubiquitous in decades and when it is used today there’s usually an actual reasoning, however valid one decides it to be.

what the fuck are these people talking about?

a campaign for this? what, are we going to campaign to cease the use of subway maps next because they give a dishonest sense of size and scale of metros?

this feels like weird distraction bait from things that actually matter.

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[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 month ago

I'll split this into two:

only matters to stupid people

People who are interested in geography, geometry, cartography, political science, geopolitics, culture, cognitive biases, ethnocentrism... generally not a low IQ cohort.

and does not qualify as something “I should know”

Ironically this might be true, just not for reasons that are flattering to you...

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[-] LetMeShowYouAThing@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 month ago

The Mercator projection was great for navigating oceans, baring remain correct. There are thousands of other map projections that do a better job preserving size, shape, directions, and distances. Any projection will be a tradeoff between these.

As far as I know the Mercator projection has mostly fallen out of use in education, and I don’t think there’s any standard that requires it anywhere. So I’m not sure exactly what this is about.

[-] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

I don’t think there’s any standard that requires it anywhere. So I’m not sure exactly what this is about.

Don't give the right any ideas. They'll be on about "geometric purity" or other such nonsense. Or anything but Mercator will just be "woke."

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[-] nymnympseudonym@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

DYMAXION MAP OR GTFO

EDIT: details


It has less distortion of relative size of areas, most notably when compared to the Mercator projection; and less distortion of shapes of areas, notably when compared to the Gall–Peters projection. Other compromise projections attempt a similar trade-off.

More unusually, the Dymaxion map does not have any "right way up". Fuller argued that in the universe there is no "up" and "down", or "north" and "south": only "in" and "out".[9] Gravitational forces of the stars and planets created "in", meaning "towards the gravitational center", and "out", meaning "away from the gravitational center". He attributed the north-up-superior/south-down-inferior presentation of most other world maps to cultural bias.

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[-] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 month ago

Okay... but doesn't this just introduce the issue of flat maps distorting anything to the east or west of center in a different way?

[-] kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 month ago

If it's already distorted, switching to a different distortion that's area-preserving can still be an improvement.

[-] Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

Hm... personally, I think it's very situational, but generally I feel like a more accurate shape is more important than size. I especially feel like it would be important for children who are just learning the map.

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[-] Nalivai@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago

It's a bit hard to find out where it actually originated from and who's behind it. Judjing by their social media handlers, it's a marketing agency Hello Makeda. Maybe it's just me, but I don't trust marketing agencies to be good judges on geographical projects.

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[-] samc@feddit.uk 22 points 1 month ago

Firstly, I do think that projections which enlarge Europe and north America relative to the global south are a problem and every curriculum should include education about how this happens and what the world really looks like.

But also, kinda funny how this project is very specifically about fairness for Africa. Why not include south America in there too?

[-] volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 month ago

Firstly, I do think that projections which enlarge Europe and north America relative to the global south are a problem and every curriculum should include education about how this happens and what the world really looks like.

Honestly, at least in school you should use a globe to begin with. It is the best projection there is. I'm also pretty sure there are online "globes" that you can turn any way you want. Using a 2D projection is mostly unnecessary in education.

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[-] zululove@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 month ago

This is so dumb what do you mean replace you have a phone and can look up different versions as u please

[-] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 month ago

They're speaking of the standard and default in most map representations.

[-] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

Why does the map on the website need that draggable divider when both versions show both types of projection?

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[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago
[-] Tbird83ii@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 month ago

Just want to point out... their "equal" and "correct" map is missing New Zealand...

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[-] RecursiveParadox@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

I'm in the one and only line of work where Mercator makes sense, and even I hate Mercator.

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[-] Gork@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 month ago

I kinda like the Winkel Triple or Kavrayskiy VII projections. They look a bit more natural compared to the Mercator.

[-] aeternum 8 points 1 month ago

none of this matters, because we all know the earth is flat. Just because other planets are round, doesn't mean the earth is!

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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2025
536 points (100.0% liked)

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