‘A map is never neutral’: meet the cartographers who took on centuries of western bias

Equal Earth projection, adopted by the UN last week, provides an alternative to 16th-century Mercator display Three cartographers have spoken of their astonishment at the UN’s near-universal adoption of a map they created to more accurately show the sizes of Africa and Europe, even though they have received a few complaints from some disgruntled diplomats.

The creators of the Equal Earth projection aimed to provide an alternative to the dominant 16th-century Mercator display,…