Some countries and territories, including Canada, Greenland and Russia, will soon look notably smaller on official United Nations maps.

That is due to a recent resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly: “Correct the map: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.”

This resolution, led by Togo on behalf of the African Union, repairs 450 years of cartographic injustice by recognizing the distortion of the world as mapped through the Mercator projection. It was adopted almost unanimously: 164 votes in favour to one against, with six abstentions. The United States was the sole vote against the resolution.

In 1569, Gerardus Mercator, a multitalented Flemish mapmaker who dedicated a large part of his life to drawing and projecting maps as accurately as possible, released a world map that used a clever new method of portraying the Earth on a flat surface.

The major benefit of this projection was its ability to represent rhumb lines (lines of constant compass bearing or direction) as straight lines, providing accurate compass directions for sailors. This was extremely important for Europeans during this period of exploration and colonization.

But this improved representation for........

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