UN General Assembly adopts Equal Earth map showing Africa's true size, US the lone vote against

The UN General Assembly voted 164 to 1 on September 4 to endorse the Equal Earth map projection, which shows Africa at roughly 14 times the size of Greenland rather than the near-equal sizes the standard Mercator map suggests. Togo sponsored the resolution on behalf of the African Union; the United States cast the only vote against, while Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine abstained. The nonbinding text encourages governments and schools to use the more accurate projection but does not ban the Mercator map.

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