The Cartography Conundrum: When "Correct" Becomes Complicated The United Nations' recent call to replace the Mercator map, which has been the standard for over 450 years, with a more accurate representation of the world's continents has sparked debate among cartographers and geographers.
The motivation behind this resolution is laudable – correcting the glaring error that makes Africa appear roughly the same size as Greenland – but it raises questions about what "correct" actually means in the context of mapmaking.
The Mercator map was designed for navigation, not artistic or aesthetic purposes. Gerardus Mercator created a tool that would allow sailors to chart courses with ease and accuracy.