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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026
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The title falsly implies that mercator is "incorrect". Mercator is an angle preserving projection, meaning all angles are true to real life. The "equal earth" map is an area preserving projection, meaning it retains the true area of countries, but in return the angles are all wrong. This makes equal earth unsuitable for navigation for example.
It is also wrong to imply that this is some kind of new development. This was very much known all along, mercator simply became the default because world maps used to be primarily for navigation.
The title is incomplete, but then again the title is already pretty big without being "The UN has backed replacing the 500-year-old Mercator projection with maps that conform to the actual surface areas of the continents, including the Equal Earth cartographic projection, were appropriate"
We had some cartography classes in the university and since then I cant accept anything other than 3D globe or parts of it.
I don't fly an airplane or sail a ship to need straight lines.
Yes, all of the 2D projections distort too much. When possible, half of the globe should be shown, from whichever angle is most relevant. Many people have no idea what a map centered on the North Pole looks like, and how close the countries in the northern hemisphere are to each other.
Traditional navigation is so cool, I had to learn the basics of it a few years ago as part of a course I was on. I suspect it'll feel rather less ceremonial in the future if GPS jamming and spoofing continue to become more common.
Did you know intercontinental missiles navigate with the stars? :o
They navigate by the stars, and then briefly turn into one.
how is Canada smaller than the USA in this "equal earth" map when it's supposed to display true areas? or is the pic in this post just shitty?
Canada (without the various arctic islands) is considerably smaller than the contiguous (sans Alaska and Hawaii) US.
Mercator projection is Canada's pushup bra.
It's bigger even if you include Alaska (and Hawaii, but you can ignore Hawaii because it's small).
We're repeatedly told in school and all throughout our media that Canada is the "second largest land mass in the world". Is that not true?
Yes it is, but you have to include all of those islands, in particular Baffin island. If you just look at the contiguous land masses, the US is bigger, which is why it looks bigger on this projection. If you dragged all those islands together into Canada, then Canada would look slightly bigger, because it is slightly bigger.
Land mass or country? Because the Americas make us the second largest land mass with Eurasia and Africa because the largest.
Isn't Africa connected to Eurasia? So we have the Americas and AfroEurasia plus some islands. Which is why "continents" has no meaning and is another social construct unless you divide them in a way that makes zero sense to anyone who isn't a geologist.
We should divide the continents in:
Continents: the actual land, so we have the Americas (i'd count them as one as they are almost one), AfroEuroAsia
Sub continents: their definition is cultural so we have north and south america, Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania
Don't take anything too seriously, i thought about this on two feets around 2 years ago and forgot about that until now
I know at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, but it always rubbed me the wrong way when Europeans claim that The Americas are one continent because it's one connected landmass, but somehow Europe is it's own continent. North/South America at least came from different super continents and only recently collided. Europe (minus the Balkans) and Asia (minus Arabian and Indian peninsulas) have been together since at least Pangaea.
Which is exactly why I said Eurasia AND Africa. I also never said continent. I said LND MASS which is what was previously said.
Work on your reading comprehension.
Canada is the second largest country in the world by area.
They’re about the same size. In this image, Canada’s northern islands are all spread out to show them inside their Mercator projections. You have to mentally add them to the large mass.
Because Canada is ~10% smaller than the US.
And that, folks, is why map projections matter, and this update is loooooong overdue.
Canada is slightly larger than the US in total area. The US is a tiny bit larger when you just count land-area.
Well yes, Canada is larger if you count the ocean as part of Canada lmao
It's not the ocean that's being counted. It's the Artic Islands.
You say that but do you count Hudson Bay?
Per population density, Canada is a 50 mile stripe along the US border.
Hudson Bay is not counted, but the great lakes are.
Canada total area: 9,984,670 km^2
USA total area: 9,866,624 km^2
Have a look a the respective 2nd digits of those numbers and consider that 9 is indeed bigger than 8.
Source: Wikipedia.
Total land area: 9,093,507
You are counting ocean as part of Canada, a thing not represented on maps.
Imagine being this condescending and wrong.
No oceans were counted. But the total area does includes lakes and rivers.
And I already said earlier that the US slightly larger when you just look at land area. It's no where near 10% though.
Your numbers add up to about 1% difference in size, not 10%
You're the one doing it
Smaller in area?
According to wikipedia, these are the total areas of both countries:
USA: 9,833,520 km2 Canada: 9,984,670 km2
I am certain I am just misunderstanding the system behind this new projection but reading it is supposed to display accurate area, it seems Canada should show up bigger.
You have to look at the land area.
And lakes and rivers those count too
They look about the same size to me and they should be about the same size. So that checks out.
This post is a perfect example of why we need the new map, lol