The document discusses different map projections and how they distort representations of land masses and continents. The Mercator projection, commonly used, exaggerates the size of land masses farther from the equator like Greenland and distorts the relative sizes of Africa, South America, and India compared to Europe and North America. Alternative projections like Gall-Peters provide a more proportional representation of continental land areas but still involve some distortion. The document argues there is no single objective world view and representations can reflect different perspectives based on factors like population, resources, languages, and religions.

1. One World View…

2. What’s wrong with it?

3. The Mercator Projection
It became the standard
map projection for
nautical purposes
because of its ability to
represent lines of
constant course, known
as rhumb lines or
loxodromes
For example, Greenland
and Antarctica appear
much larger relative to
land masses near the
equator than they
actually are.
a cylindrical map
projection presented
by the Flemish
geographer and
cartographer Gerardus
Mercator in 1569
distorts the size of
objects as the latitude
increases from the
Equator to the poles,
where the scale
becomes infinite.

5. What’s wrong with our world view?
The ‘Africa’ Representation
Problem
• North America looks at least
as big, if not slightly larger,
than Africa. You can fit
North America into Africa
and still have space for
India, Argentina, Tunisia and
some left over.
• Greenland also looks of
comparable size to Africa,
although it is 1/14th the size.
The India Problem
• The map suggests that
Scandinavian countries are
larger than India, whereas
in reality India is three times
the size of all Scandinavian
countries put together.
The Russia Problem
• Africa is twice the size of
Russia
• the Brazil Problem; The
Latin American Problem….

7. TO GAIN A ‘BETTER’ VIEW, WE CAN
REPRESENT THE WORLD ACCORDING TO
Gall-Peters equal projection
provides proportional
representation of land mass
to the continents.
Still preserves some distortion,
as is the case with any
rectangular representation of
spherical objects

8. Mercator projection vs. projection by land area

9. Gall-Peters Equal Area Projection

10. Main Implications
• Cartographic Imperialism:
– Since much of the
technologically
underdeveloped world lies
near the equator, these
countries appear smaller on a
Mercator and therefore,
according to Peters, seem less
significant.
– By using his "new" projection,
poorer, less powerful nations
could be restored to their
rightful proportions.
• Widely criticised by the
community, with champions
emerging later on.
• Some organisations
adopted the map in their
official use.

11. Other Physical World Views

12. Not the only view…

13. A Sino-centric worldview

14. A north-pole view

15. Some views don’t sit well
with others…

16. & these are just physical
representations
• You can also look
qualitatively at
representations…
– Population
– Resource / materials & its
distribution view
– GDP / per capita GDP
– Languages
– Ethnicity
– Religions
– Corruption / Crime /
Competitiveness…

17. Gas & Gold
Distribution

18. GDP

19. Per Capita GDP

20. Population

21. Religion

22. Corruption

23. Crime – Intentional Homicide

24. Conclusion
• There is 1 world, but no
1 world-view
• There is beauty and
usefulness in diversity
by any lens or filter
We don’t know
what we don’t know
The only true wisdom is in knowing
that you know nothing.
Socrates