联合国决议旨在解决地图失真问题

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution titled “Correct the map: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.” The measure, spearheaded by Togo on behalf of the African Union, seeks to address long-standing inaccuracies in how the world is depicted on official maps.

The resolution passed with 164 votes in favor, one against—the United States—and six abstentions. Ukraine, which abstained, expressed support for addressing historical distortions but raised concerns that the new mapping standards could be interpreted as legitimizing the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia.

For centuries, the Mercator projection, created by Gerardus Mercator in 1569, has served as a standard for world maps. While the projection was highly effective for maritime navigation by representing compass bearings as straight lines, it significantly distorts landmasses near the poles. This results in regions like Russia, Canada, and Europe appearing disproportionately larger than landmasses near the equator, such as Africa and South America.

The UN resolution encourages the adoption of equal-area projections, specifically the “Equal Earth” projection, to provide a more accurate representation of global geography. This move is viewed as a step toward decolonizing cartography, acknowledging that the Mercator projection has historically served as a tool for colonial ideologies. In the 1970s, historian Arno Peters similarly challenged these distortions by promoting equal-area maps, sparking significant debate over the political implications of cartography.

Despite the UN's shift, the impact on digital platforms remains uncertain. Many modern applications, including Google Maps, utilize the “Web Mercator” projection, which is favored for its computational efficiency and local accuracy but maintains the same size distortions as the original 16th-century model. The resolution highlights the broader reality that maps are not merely neutral depictions of the Earth, but instruments of power that shape global perspectives.

Source: The Conversation