Maps show North at the top, but has this always been the case? Early Chinese explorers put 'south' at the top and it isn't technically required; it just became a standard over time.
You could consider using a map with a different orientation to represent the world?
Maps have ‘north’ at the top, but it could’ve been different from BBC Futures
The Upsidedown Map Page from Frances Irving
This Is Not an Atlas
The most common Atlas found today is based on the Mercator Projection, created by Gerardus Mercator in 1596. This was at the time revolutionary, as it was based on a cylindrical projection
This map was very suitable for nautical navigation, and more recently, the seamless way it represents the earth on a computer screen.
In this style of projection, there exists inaccuracies; the size of landmasses distorts as they get further from the equator. Europe and North America are disproportionately larger compared to other countries. And these inaccuracies come with issues that reach far beyond mere distance.
Maps in Educational Settings: Portraying Power? With thanks to Dr Sunita Abraham.
Leaders from the African Union have called for a move away from the use of the old ‘colonial’ Mercator map to the use of maps like the Equal Earth projection, which portray the size of the vast continent in a more realistic light. Here at Lancaster University, we acknowledge that even maps like the Equal Earth projection or the earlier attempts at reconfiguring maps like the Goode homolosine or the Peters projection do have underlying issues.
Yet our work in highlighting the legacies of colonialism, slavery and empire in shaping knowledge and knowledge production reinforces the importance of addressing power imbalances that have privileged a Western Eurocentric understanding of the size of countries in the Global South relative to those in the ‘Western’ world. As this article powerfully argues, understanding why the Mercator map portrayed a particular vision of the world in the colonial era is important, but it is also equally important to share the truth and correct a historical inaccuracy. It matters for countries in the African continent, as we might subconsciously equate size with power.
Colonial legacies and associated perceptions also colour our understanding of contemporary issues faced by countries in the African continent and in the Global South. This understanding also matters for educational settings in the Western world, which have long been complicit in portraying colonial viewpoints. By using a more accurate map like the Equal Earth projection, we can help to redress this colonial legacy and prevent epistemic injustice.
The Equal Earth Wall Map is for schools, organisations, or anyone who needs a map showing countries and continents at their true sizes relative to each other. Africa appears 14 times larger than Greenland, which is accurate and better supports the understanding of the genuine size of world countries.
Read more about this projection and download different high-resolution versions at https://equal-earth.com/
Our main package featuring World Maps is Digimaps Global. You can export several accurate raster maps in the 'Download Data' section (For example, the World Panorama WGS84 Versions) rather than the Web Mercator version.
Explore the World Panorama WGS84 version mapped on a 3D globe, as well as technical specifications at https://www.collinsbartholomew.com/world-panorama-raster-map-data/
The Dymaxion map projection, also called the Fuller projection, is a heavily interrupted map that reduces shape and size distortion compared to other world maps. Interruptions are chosen to lie in the ocean, reducing complexity.
View an interactive Dymaxion map at http://teczno.com/faumaxion-II/
Seventy-two map projections currently supported in ArcGIS, available in AppsAnywhere
Read more about the range of map projections at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/
This app was created by James Talmage and Damon Maneice It was inspired by an episode of The West Wing and an infographic by Kai Krause entitled "The True Size of Africa".
Access at https://thetruesize.com/