The UN General Assembly adopted on 4 September a 164-to-1 non-binding resolution promoting equi-surface maps, in peculiar the Equal Earth projection. Only the US voted against, six countries abstained. The boundaries have not been changed. For Poland this means a possible correction of school maps, not a fresh territorial order.
The UN has supported Equal Earth, not border change
The headlines on "change of the planet map" sound much more groundbreaking than the content of the decision. The UN General Assembly has not moved national borders and has not adopted 1 mandatory atlas. Resolution A/80/L.104 encourages governments, schools, global organisations and technology companies to depart from Mercator's projection where the map is to show comparative land surfaces.
164 countries voted for the document. The erstwhile United States and Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine abstained. The resolution presented Togo on behalf of African countries, with the support of the African Union. It is of a non-binding nature. This is an crucial discrimination due to the fact that the UN has not obtained the right to impose on Poland a school program or a way of presenting the world.
Why Mercator distorts surfaces
Every flat map of the planet distorts the spherical Earth. There is no projection at the same time preserving shapes, distances, directions and surfaces. Gerard Mercator's 1569 projection was highly useful in sailing due to the fact that it retains its angles and allows you to depict the ship's course as a consecutive line. Its disadvantage is the fast expansion of areas closer to the poles.
The effect is easy to see from Greenland and Africa. Many Mercator maps look similar, although the surface of Africa is about 14 times larger. Equal Earth, a projection presented in 2018, maintains the proportions of the surface. It is so better suited to compare the scale of continents and countries, although it besides deforms their shapes. Honest education should explain these differences alternatively of announcing 1 map as absolutely "real".
The African initiative besides has a political dimension
The "Correct the Map" run came from the belief that fixed performances diminish Africa in the collective imagination. The African Union adopted Equal Earth in February 2026 and called on associate States to review school programmes. In her documents, she combined cartography with the concepts of "cognition justice" and reparation.
Realism is needed here. Correction of apparent surface distortion does not require the adoption of an full ideological package. The technological usefulness of equi-surface maps can be recognised and the effort to add automatic political and financial claims to geometry can be rejected. African Union dispute over colonial reparations is simply a separate substance and should be assessed on the basis of law, past and work of circumstantial countries.
The United States has justified inter alia the criticism of language regarding reparation and "cognition justice". However, the vote against itself does not prove that Mercator's projection shows the surfaces correctly. Geometry is not invalidated by a political position.
What a decision means for Poland
Polish schools can usage different mappings depending on the intent of the lesson. Mercator remains useful to explain the past of navigation and the properties of faithful-angle maps. Equal Earth shows better comparative size of countries and continents. The wisest solution is to teach students why each projection keeps something and sacrifices something.
The stakes for Poland concern the quality of education and software sovereignty. We request neither a geographical mistake established by habit nor an ideological instruction given under the appearance of science. We request real data, precise language and our own decision on how to teach the young generation of the world. The UN resolution may be a useful impulse. It is not an order, and it does not change the borders of any country.
Source: Bankier.pl
Source: Bankier.pl
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