geography - A story of two world maps

[peaccenicked]

http://www.travel-guide.com/navigate/world.asp
This is the mercat view of the world.(click ads away)
Below is the peters projection, an area accurate map.
Notice how the rich countries are smaller in the real world.
http://www.webcom.com/~bright/petermap.html
Coincidence Huh?

[Fires of History]

Peaccenicked,

Thanks for that. Once it is broken down into actual square miles, I can see how the 'traditional' maps have definitely skewed my thinking about how the world is proportioned. North America, Europe, and especially Russia are a whole lot smaller than I ever imagined! Thanks! I think the Peters Map would really help me illustrate many of my points about 'third world' demographics and statistics to my fence-riding friends.

[peaccenicked]

no problem.
It really has changed my thinking about the world too.

[vox]

Three words:

Buy a globe. :)

vox

[sabre]

okay the mercator projection is if you want to look at the area aroudn the equator with accuracy

polar maps (look like cones) show the upper or southern regions better.

the only accurate representation of the earth is a globe.

[RedCeltic]

Yea the problem with flat maps of the world is trying to accurately portray a spherical object (Earth) which is impossible. The first map seems like an attempt to portray the spherical nature of the globe, however only comes out looking like the continents have been run over by a steamroller.

[Fires of History]

The problem with a globe is that you can't see it all at once.

[MJM]

Africas gigantic!
I've never really thought about this before, just swallowed the party line :-)

[Anarcho]

A globe will work.

I have some issues with the Peters Map however. It does accuratly (it seems) show a more realistic realtionship.

But I think he may be deminishing the north now. *sigh*

The fact is, Russia is still the largest individual political body on the planet.

Buy a globe, or use the map that looks like it's been sliced into and wedges taken out. That works too.

[Fires of History]

Quote: from Anarcho on 7:12 am on April 18, 2002
But I think he may be deminishing the north now. *sigh*


And perhaps with that sigh the point of the map is made?

[peaccenicked]

Following this line of enquiry I came accross this.
"In 1989, seven North American professional geographic organizations (including the American Cartographic Association, National Council for Geographic Education, Association of American Geographers, and the National Geographic Society) adopted a resolution that called for a ban on all rectangular coordinate maps.


WHEREAS, the earth is round with a coordinate system composed entirely of circles, and
WHEREAS, flat world maps are more useful than globe maps, but flattening the globe surface necessarily greatly changes the appearance of Earth's features and coordinate systems, and

WHEREAS, world maps have a powerful and lasting effect on peoples' impressions of the shapes and sizes of lands and seas, their arrangement, and the nature of the coordinate system, and

WHEREAS, frequently seeing a greatly distorted map tends to make it "look right,"

THEREFORE, we strongly urge book and map publishers, the media and government agencies to cease using rectangular world maps for general purposes or artistic displays. Such maps promote serious, erroneous conceptions by severely distorting large sections of the world, by showing the round Earth as having straight edges and sharp corners, by representing most distances and direct routes incorrectly, and by portraying the circular coordinate system as a squared grid. The most widely displayed rectangular world map is the Mercator (in fact a navigational diagram devised for nautical charts), but other rectangular world maps proposed as replacements for the Mercator also display a greatly distorted image of the spherical Earth.


Thus, the resolution clearly called for the complete elimination use of the Mercator as well as the Peters projection. But what to replace them with?"
The next page is suggested alternatives
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/...y/aa030201b.htm (http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030201b.htm)
If we look at the Robinson projection
printed here.
http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/...y/aa030201c.htm (http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030201c.htm)
Although it makes Europe smaller than South america. North America which is 7/10 the size of africa on the peters is
still looking oversized.
Funny that, politically incorrect?

From the above quote
"WHEREAS, world maps have a powerful and lasting effect on peoples' impressions of the shapes and sizes of lands and seas, their arrangement"









(Edited by peaccenicked at 10:23 am on April 18, 2002)


(Edited by peaccenicked at 10:27 am on April 18, 2002)

[Anarcho]

Quote: from Fires of History on 7:29 am on April 18, 2002

Quote: from Anarcho on 7:12 am on April 18, 2002
But I think he may be deminishing the north now. *sigh*


And perhaps with that sigh the point of the map is made?


No no.... ideally, a map shouldn't be a political tool. A map is a true boon to all society. No one area should be intentionally neglected.

The Mercator maps were originally designed by European navigators to help them in their journies. The reason that Europe or North America tends to be more prevalent in them is that Europe was much more well known, and, to those early explorers and traders, more important. It's all well and good to get out to see, but a good map and an astrolabe and compass are needed to get home again.

While it is true that the Mercator distorts the land, anyone with a globe can see the truth.

And I think the Mercator has just held on more due to inertia than any "evil plot".

[peaccenicked]

What seems strange to me is that once the Peters map comes into being, all of sudden 2D maps are held to be useless.
It is as if the peters map is offensive to imperialist sensibilities but you are probably right it is merely coincidence.
I know that Christian Aid promote the Peters map and I can see why. It brings out more of the unevenness of wealth distribution.

[pastradamus]

yeah,the most notable difference is the comparison in size of india & scandanavia,india is 3 times the size of scandaniva,& in the normal projection the two are the same size.

[Moskitto]

Maps are done in different ways. there's 4 general ways. 1 extends the middle to make the areas round the equator bigger. Annother one streaches the south and shrinks the north to emphasise the size of the third.

[peaccenicked]

From the same site.
"Important Characteristics of the Peters Map


1)Fairness to All Peoples
2)In the complex and interdependent world in which nations now live, the people of the world deserve and need an accurate portrayal of the world.

The Peters Map is the map for our day.
World mission and aid-giving agencies use the Peters map because it serves to represent the developing countries at their true proportion. The Peters map has been widely adopted elsewhere, but remains a curiosity in the United States. Why is this? Among related factors are these: (1) our resistance to join the rest of the world on the metric system (even the British have changed from inches and fahrenheit to centimeters and celsius), (2) national surveys showing U.S. schoolchildren have among the lowest levels of geography awareness of all developed nations, and (3) many professional cartographers have resented the "politicization" of their field. Arno Peters was one of the first to assert that maps are unavoidably political.

[pastradamus]

A maps just a big picture it dosent really mean anything.

[peaccenicked]

well if I misrepresent a picture of you giving you a huge nose and big lips and bulging eyes, if you did not laugh you might become upset.
The misrepresentation of a whole people is called racism.