Geographic Paints a New View of World

The National Geographic Society, painting “a more realistic view of the world,” Thursday unveiled a new world map that depicts the continents in different proportion, shrinking the size of the United States.

“It’s not every day you can change the world, but that’s what we are doing today,” National Geographic spokesman Robert Sims told a news conference.

Reducing ‘Ignorance’

The society has since 1922 used world maps that rely on a system developed by American engineer Alphons van der Grinten. But Gilbert Grosvenor, the president of the society, said the new map better meets the age-old challenge of portraying “a round Earth on flat paper.”

Noting a recent survey showed only one in seven Americans can find the United States on a world map, Grosvenor said he hoped the new map would help reduce public “ignorance” of world geography.

It is impossible to produce a flat map that does not distort the size, shape, distance or direction of various land masses. Van der Grinten’s map, for example, depicts Greenland 554% larger than it is, the Soviet Union 223% larger and the United States 68% larger.

To mark its 100th anniversary, the National Geographic Society this year sponsored a competition to improve its maps. After reviewing nearly 20 proposals, a panel of leading cartographers or map makers unanimously chose Arthur Robinson’s view of the world. Robinson, 73, is professor emeritus of cartography and geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a recognized leader in American map making.

More Realistic

The new map portrays Greenland only 60% larger than it is, the Soviet Union just 18% bigger and depicts the United States about 3% smaller than its actual size.

“The only true representation of the world is a globe, but you can’t carry a globe around in your pocket or hang it on the wall as a TV backdrop,” said John Garver Jr., chief of the society’s staff of 100 cartographers.