US sole vote against UN resolution urging more accurate world maps

Late last week, the United States cast the sole vote opposing a United Nations General Assembly resolution encouraging member states to use accurate world maps. The resolution specifically aimed to shift away from the Mercator projection—which enlarges landmasses near the poles relative to those closer to the equator—to the Equal Earth projection, which provides a less distorted view of the relative size of continents.

The effort was driven by the African Group, comprising fifty-four African countries, collectively seeking to correct perceptions of their continent's size.

Washington's Objections

In a statement delivered by U.S. officials, the resolution was characterized as:

• An affront to "common sense"
• A stalking horse for a "radical ideological project"
• A distraction from more important matters before the United Nations

The latter argument drew particular criticism, given the administration's own focus on renaming bodies of water in lieu of effective diplomacy.

Implications of the U.S. Stance

The decision raises several questions about U.S. interests and strategy:

• What does the United States gain by opposing cartographic accuracy?
• How does rejecting this effort to correct a distortion that clearly concerns African nations advance American interests or facilitate security and economic partnerships with African states?
• Is there a domestic political audience demanding poorly designed maps that justifies alienating Africans—who will soon account for one quarter of the world's population—by suggesting they should accept a misleadingly shrunken representation of their place in the world?

Broader Context

By positioning "common sense" in opposition to accuracy, the United States appears to suggest that any revision—even one aimed at correcting misperceptions—is an affront to a preferable, comfortable, mistaken impression. This pattern extends beyond cartography to include:

• Denying the reality of climate change, which is dramatically reshaping the world, to the extent that the word "sustainability" becomes forbidden
• Pretending that the most pressing refugee need among the world's people is that of white South Africans

This insistence on fiction isolates the United States and confounds the rest of the world. As the author notes, "We are not just demanding to be wrong, we demand that others agree to our delusions."

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