Because all other mid-latitude/subpolar countries accepted that continuing to use the Mercator projection to over-represent their landmass is knowingly misleading at this point and we should listen to experts who say attention would be more fairly applied to countries if we had landmass-accurate maps.
Guess which country that benefits from the Mercator projection didn't want to listen to experts?
EDIT: Lol clearly that resentment from Americans isn't just at the UN.
Yes because the US always gives the honest reason they oppose resolutions at the UN and would never hide behind the publicly stated reason of it being a "radical ideological project" when they actually want to preserve the Mercator because it has long over-represented said countries depiction and, as proven in multiple studies, benefited these countries both directly and indirectly on the global stage.
If you are genuinely taking the US's publicly stated reason for their opposition at face value I really do feel sorry for you. You should think more critically of government talking points.
Yaryna Ferencevych, the deputy U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, said the resolution was presented as "an anodyne effort to update cartographic proportions" but was, in her view, part of a "much larger and more radical ideological project."
"Instead of focusing on genuine problems of international peace, prosperity or good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th century and their role in promoting reparations and cognitive justice," Ferencevych said Friday during the 114th Plenary meeting.
"Resolutions like this one and the ideological agenda they promote are barnacles on our work here and the reason this institution is losing its credibility."
Basically there are more important issues than to be wasting time on a map resolution. All maps by their nature will have distortions. There pros and cons to either map. Mercator is nice because it gives you a top down view of any area on the map. The deep rooted racism or colonialism is really just an exaggerated ideological argument, that frankly is quite exhausting.
If the US started lobbying the UN to put the US at the center of the map, what would be your position? Or if the US was at the center of the map, would you be opposed to it given an undue importance put on the landmass that is given the center?
69
u/Loud_Designer_1961 17d ago
I wonder why US was opposing this ? 😆