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    Die Afrikanische Union schließt sich den Anrufen an, um die Verwendung der Mercator -Karte zu beenden, die die Größe des Kontinents schrumpft


    Die Afrikanische Union schließt sich den Anrufen an, um die Verwendung der Mercator -Karte zu beenden, die die Größe des Kontinents schrumpft

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/15/african-union-true-size-world-map-replace-mercator-version

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    44 Kommentare

    2. KakistocratForLife on

      Don’t they actually have real problems to deal with beyond decrying colonialist map projection techniques?

    3. MediumMachineGun on

      Incorrect from the start on the headline. Mercator dies not shrink the continent of Africa. it stretches areas close to the poles, making them appear bigger.

    6. SwordfishNo9878 on

      The Mercator map is what you get when you take the globe and flatten it into a rectangle. There isn’t a way to do it without distortion and like it or not that map is still useful and convenient to use because it is a rectangle and therefore fits rectangle screens, posters, and sheets of paper.

      Just because it was invented by the colonists doesn’t mean it was done in bad faith. Mercator didn’t twist his mustache figuring out how to stick it to Africa he just did the most logical thing he could do and a century later we still agree.

      To me, this seems like a populist “Africa First” issue. I’d suggest instead of making people feel bad for using a map, maybe work on solving and security border issues and make the continent just overall safer. The best way to get people to see how enormous and gorgeous Africa is to get them to see it for themselves.

    8. Unlikely-Complex3737 on

      They’re free to change their map if that makes them happy lol

    9. thoawaydatrash on

      Just use a transverse Mercator with a pole in the center of Africa. Then you get infinite Africa.

    11. MrkEm22 on

      Glad to see the good people of the African Union bringing to attention the issues that truly matter.

    12. MN_Yogi1988 on

      > saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was “marginal”, despite being the world’s second-largest continent by area, with more than 1 billion people.

      I think most people that think Africa is marginal do so because of the number of conflicts in the region and the enormous amount of foreign aid many of its countries need, not because of some map we used in K-12

      > Google Maps switched from Mercator on desktop to a 3D globe view in 2018

      TBH this is the only thing that matters from a practical sense

    13. NJdevil202 on

      Who are they „joining“ in this?

      (I didn’t read the article, no regerts)

    15. Joshsh28 on

      Historically, I don’t think announcing to the world, “we have a lot of land” has gone well for people.

    16. RoleTall2025 on

      ja like there isn’t a practical reason for the world being not to scale on a 2d map…jesus christ…

    19. hymen_destroyer on

      Better wait til trumps out of office. The Mercator projection has him salivating over Greenland…if Africa gets too big he might notice that too

    20. GuaranteedCougher on

      I don’t think land mass really matters much. It’s not like Russia and Canada are considered the two best countries because of all their land

    21. brightlights55 on

      Africa has a lot of problems. This should be very low on a long list of priorities.

    22. EmperorChain on

      Mercator is ridiculous for global displays but it’s one of the only projections that preserves local shapes and angles for street level details

    25. reviery_official on

      There are far superior projections, so I’m all for it. Greenland in the size of Africa is just ridiculous 

    26. RoyalLurker on

      Dangerous call. Might distract Trumps attention from Greenland and towards Africa.

    27. Ppais89 on

      No problem with me, but with such a big ass continent why they do not develop it.

    32. Big_Author_3195 on

      What is wrong with the world man. Even a map has to be distorted to the point where a continent look like and comparable in size e to one country 

    35. anders_hansson on

      This is a serious blow to us in the Nordic countries – now we will look all small and insignificant on the map 😭

    36. YumYumYellowish on

      Sounds like a fancy beuracratic form of dick measuring. Who cares? There’s more important issues happening in Africa than how the map looks.

    37. UrbanDryad on

      Yep. When I think of problems African nations need to band together to solve the size distortion of the continent on the Mercator map is front of mind.

    41. melkipersr on

      What are the chances that Trump’s horniness for Greenland is entirely based on how much the Mercator projection distorts its size?

    43. PopUpClicker on

      This sounds fair. Can we make russia look smaller in the process. And america.

      I call it the penicator map that shrinks in size based on the size of the leaders penis

    44. totallyRebb on

      Nah, i say it’s time to center the map projection on the North or South Pole, to represent their size properly.

      #TeamPoles

      The priorities of politics lately are mindblowing.

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