Decolonizing cartography: The Equal Earth projection

The Equal Earth projection produced by Tom Patterson, Bojan Šavrič and Bernhard Jenny in 2018 attempts to offer a ‘true’ representation of the world, as a sphere, in a two-dimensional format. Ever since humanity figured out that the world is not flat but round, mapmakers have grappled with the issue of how to depict the globe, and over the years this has led to unavoidable distortions and arbitrary choices, some of which are unwarranted or particularly striking and are now in need of correction.

As mapmaker Patterson explained in an email to BIG:

'We wanted to provide a better (i.e. more pleasing to the eye) alternative to the Peters Projection [an earlier attempt popularized in the 1980s] for individuals and groups desiring to publish equal area world maps. Equal Earth started off as a technical cartographic challenge. As work progressed, however, we realized that the project potentially had much greater societal impact.'

Maps shape the way we see the world and our place in it; they are political tools and throughout history they have reflected power structures, magnifying some nations and regions, minimizing others and placing some at the centre.

The traditional map of the world is based on the Mercator projection, developed by the Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator in 1569, reproducing a distorted image of the world that inflates the size of lands the farther they are from the equator, resulting in landmasses such as Greenland and Antarctica appearing far larger than they are. The Equal Earth projection corrects this by showing the African and South American continents at their true scale, restoring visibility to the Global South. Additionally, the map recognizes small island states in the Pacific Ocean: tiny nations (Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, etc.) are given insets, whereas they are overlooked in standard maps. A feature of note is the Southern Ocean, surrounding Antarctica, which is not represented on all maps. Additional information is provided to underpin the visualization of the world: at the bottom left and right, tables list the largest countries by area and by population.

Correct the map, a campaign launched in 2025 by Speak Up for Africa and Africa No Filter to change the map projections utilized globally, has been gaining momentum, and the Equal Earth Map has been endorsed by the African Union (AU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). If the EU were to officially adopt maps like the Equal Earth projection, for instance in publications by EU institutions, it would foster a worldview that values balance, equity and the legitimacy of all regions. It would also be a strategic and diplomatic move that would help bring Europe closer to the rest of the world.