{"id":4073,"date":"2017-03-28T11:44:02","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T15:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=4073"},"modified":"2018-02-09T15:28:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T20:28:34","slug":"the-peters-map-is-fighting-the-last-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/03\/the-peters-map-is-fighting-the-last-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peters Map Is Fighting the Last War"},"content":{"rendered":"

News of Boston public schools’ decision to go with the Peters projection<\/a> has gone viral over the past week, and my teeth have not stopped itching. Largely because this is very much old news: Arno Peters began promoting “his” projection 44 years ago, and the Peters map has been making the rounds in certain circles ever since then. This is not new<\/em>, and the media is showing its feckless streak in its lack of awareness of that fact. After all, the West Wing<\/cite> episode with the Peters map in it was broadcast 16 years ago<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Gall-Peters projection<\/a> is just one of several rectilinear equal-area projections; that Peters promoted it as a tool of social justice and anti-colonialism made it awfully appealing to people who are concerned with such issues. (They are not wrong to be concerned with such issues.) But cartographers have generally always been appalled by the projection, by Peters’s rhetoric and by his general ignorance of what had gone before. (Peters’s map had already been described by James Gall in 1885; the Mercator projection<\/a>‘s insufficiencies as a wall map had long been known; and there were many other projections, from the Van der Grinten<\/a> to the Mollweide<\/a> to the Goode homolosine<\/a>, that were already being used in the Mercator’s stead.)<\/p>\n

(The Mercator projection, for its part, makes a crap wall map: its virtue is that rhumb lines<\/a>\u2014compass headings\u2014are straight lines, making the Mercator ideal for navigation. It’s worth emphasizing that Mercator himself died in 1594. Again, see Monmonier’s book on the subject<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Cartographers’ response to the Peters projection is essentially, usually (and correctly) that every map projection is a compromise, because every map projection is an attempt to represent a round planet on a flat surface. All maps, in other words, lie; or at least no map is exempt from lying; or at least the Mercator is no more a liar than any other projection. It’s essentially an effort in debunking\u2014the tedious repetition of “well, actually” to a credulous audience that doesn’t care enough to listen all the way through. (And besides: the company selling the Peters map<\/a> thoroughly agrees with them!)<\/p>\n

For the latest examples of this, see Caitlin Dempsey’s piece on teaching context<\/a>, and Andy Woodruff’s response<\/a> to the latest round of this. They’re good pieces, worth reading\u2014but I can’t help wonder whether something different needs to be tried. But then again: what problem are we trying to solve? Media and public credulity? The fact that the Peters projection, bluntly, sucks? The campaign\u2014and it is<\/em> a campaign\u2014behind it?<\/p>\n

But the campaign for the Peters map is increasingly irrelevant. In late 2015 I argued<\/a> that the debate over the right projection for wall maps was the cartographic equivalent of fighting the last war. The Peters map was a 20th-century response to a 19th-century problem (the Mercator on wall maps) that had already largely been solved earlier in the century. Sure, there are still wall maps out there that use the projection (I’m looking in your direction, IKEA), but by and large it’s not used nearly as much as the Peters defenders would have you think.<\/p>\n

But 21st-century mapmaking is not about wall maps: it’s about web maps<\/strong>. As I said in 2015<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Every online map service uses a variant of the Mercator projection called Web Mercator<\/a>. Whatever its shortcomings\u2014and there are many, owing to the fact that its calculations use a spherical Mercator model to save computational cycles\u2014Web Mercator has become the de facto standard<\/a>. And the size distortions at small scales that have made the Mercator projection the target of so much ire over the decades are simply moot for most use cases.<\/p>\n

In many ways the past debates over the Mercator are moot: arguing over the right projection for wall-sized world maps\u2014Mercator vs. Peters vs. Robinson<\/a>\u2014is fighting the last war. Mercator has become the default option for online mapmaking, simply because so many data visualization maps rely on Google Maps or OpenStreetMap for their base map layer. Other projections will be reserved for the professionals, people with access to more sophisticated mapmaking tools and the skill to use them, but for the most part, when data is mapped on the Internet, it’ll be mapped according to Mercator.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zoom out in Google Maps or OpenStreetMap, and what do you see? The Mercator projection, with Greenland in all its inappropriately giant glory. (Apple Maps turns into a globe when you zoom out far enough, but Apple Maps are app-only.) The reason why this isn’t generally seen as a problem is that hardly anyone uses Google Maps as a world map: like topographic maps that use UTM<\/a>, at close range Mercator works just fine.<\/p>\n

While there are efforts under way to use other projections in web maps<\/a>, it’s unlikely that the Mercator-vs.-Peters battle\u2014a false dichotomy if there ever was one\u2014will migrate to the digital arena.<\/p>\n

Previously: The Peters Projection Comes to Boston’s Public Schools<\/a>; In Defence of the Mercator Projection<\/a>; How the Mercator Projection Won the Internet<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News of Boston public schools’ decision to go with the Peters projection has gone viral over the past week, and my teeth have not stopped itching. Largely because this is very much old news: Arno… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,139],"tags":[791,571,604,792],"class_list":["post-4073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartography","category-education","tag-gall-peters-projection","tag-map-projections","tag-mercator","tag-peters-projection"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4051,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/03\/the-peters-projection-comes-to-bostons-public-schools\/","url_meta":{"origin":4073,"position":0},"title":"The Peters Projection Comes to Boston’s Public Schools","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 March 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"In a development that just might\u00a0make academic cartographers pull out their remaining hair in frustration,\u00a0Boston's public schools began using the\u00a0Peters projection in social studies classes last week. The news coverage (see the\u00a0Grauniad\u2019s) is the usual straw man argument about the Mercator and the false dichotomy between it and the Peters,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/gall-peters-wikimedia-1024x654.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/gall-peters-wikimedia-1024x654.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/gall-peters-wikimedia-1024x654.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/gall-peters-wikimedia-1024x654.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4283,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/04\/the-74-on-boston-schools-and-the-peters-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":4073,"position":1},"title":"The 74 on Boston Schools and the Peters Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 April 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Education news website\u00a0The 74 has its own\u00a0coverage of the Boston schools\/Peters map\u00a0controversy (is it safe to call it a controversy?), with extensive quotes from Matthew Edney, who does not mince words.\u00a0(Comparing both projections to Comic Sans? Ouch.) [Caitlin Dempsey] Previously: More on Boston Schools and the Peters Map;\u00a0The Peters Map\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786103,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/the-equal-earth-projection\/","url_meta":{"origin":4073,"position":2},"title":"The Equal Earth Projection","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"9 August 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"In 2014 cartographer Tom Patterson and his colleagues, Bojan \u0160avri\u010d and Bernhard Jenny, introduced the eponymous Patterson projection, a cylindrical projection that reduced polar exaggeration while maintaining the familiar shape of continents. Patterson, who recently retired from the U.S. National Park Service, has teamed up with \u0160avri\u010d and Jenny to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equal-earth-projection-1024x512.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equal-earth-projection-1024x512.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equal-earth-projection-1024x512.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equal-earth-projection-1024x512.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4102,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/03\/more-on-boston-schools-and-the-peters-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":4073,"position":3},"title":"More on Boston Schools and the Peters Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"30 March 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Atlas Obscura\u2019s Cara Giaimo has an in-depth look at the reaction to the decision by Boston public schools to adopt the Peters projection in teaching materials. It's well worth taking the time to read; the general gist from several cartographers and commentators is that swapping the Mercator for the Peters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786230,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/09\/more-on-equal-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":4073,"position":4},"title":"More on Equal Earth","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 September 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"The Gall-Peters projection is a second-rate projection with first-rate public relations; cartographers' responses to the projection that focused on its cartographic shortcomings ended up missing the point. Something different is happening with the Equal Earth projection, which was announced last month as a response to Gall-Peters: an equal-area projection with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Equal Earth projection in colour","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/equal-earth-colour-1024x499.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/equal-earth-colour-1024x499.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/equal-earth-colour-1024x499.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/equal-earth-colour-1024x499.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1826549,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/02\/edney-on-arno-peters\/","url_meta":{"origin":4073,"position":5},"title":"Edney on Arno Peters","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 February 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Matthew Edney has written a long blog post on Arno Peters and his map. I\u2019ve been struggling for months now on how to deal with Arno Peters and his world map. Every time I turn to the subject, I just get bogged down by the complexity of the scattered and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4073"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784965,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4073\/revisions\/1784965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}