Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4-8:
The
Peters
projec-
tion.
Advocates of the Peter's projection say it renders an important measure of cartographic justice for
tropical Third World regions. They claim that by inflating the size of high-latitude regions relative to
the tropics, the Mercator and some other projections present a Europe-centered view of the world that
denigrates Third World countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. Proponents point out that the
Peters projection is an
equal area projection
that shows tropical regions in their true size relative to,
say, Europe and North America. As a result of such advocacy, several agencies with strong interests
in the Third World (including the National Council of Churches, UNICEF, and UNESCO) have ad-
opted the Peters projection as their official depiction of the world.
When you look at the facts of the matter, three things are obvious.
First, the Peters projection terribly distorts those parts of the world it supposedly promotes.
Second, there is a perfectly good alternative to the Peters that is an equal area map
and
depicts shape of tropical Third World regions with considerable accuracy — the Goode's pro-
jection.
Third, there is nothing new about
The New Cartography.
The Peters projection is a knock-
off of a projection that was developed by James Gall in 1885 and quickly disappeared from
the radar screen of serious cartography, probably because it lies so badly.
