The New Shape of the World

By BRUCE VAN VOORST

It's not every day one gets to cut the Soviet Union in half," mused the National Geographic Society's chief cartographer, John Garver Jr. Indeed, on the new map of the world that the society is sending its 11 million members, the Soviet Union has lost 18 million sq. mi. -- more than two-thirds of the territory it appeared to encompass on the National Geographic's maps for the past half-century. The diminution, to be sure, is only on paper, but to millions of map readers the world over, perception is reality. And that reality is about to be changed by the National Geographic's new map, which will probably become the standard for cartography in the U.S.

Cartographers have long known that the images on maps often do not reflect the actual shapes and relative sizes of continents and seas. In the widely used map projection drawn in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, Greenland is exaggerated 16 times and appears to be bigger than South America, even though it is only about the size of Mexico. The National Geographic's Van der Grinten projection, which has been used for the past 66 years, shows Alaska blown up to five times its real size, making it appear the rough equivalent of Brazil, which is actually six times as large. Acknowledges Garver: "The only accurate map is a globe."

But globes are awkward to carry around. And no matter what gimmick is used, drawing the surface of a sphere on a flat plane results in distortion. Anyone who tries to flatten the whole peel of an orange can imagine the difficulty. The features of a globe cannot be transferred accurately to a flat map. If the shapes of continents are correct, the sizes are wrong; a system that is accurate at the equator is hopeless at the poles.

Endless variations have been tried, from circles to ovals, rectangles, hearts and butterflies, all of them flawed. Competing versions have triggered emotional controversies. "Cartographers since Ptolemy have wrestled with the problem," says Arthur Robinson, professor emeritus of geography at the University of Wisconsin, who devised the projection used in the Geographic Society's new map. "Alas, there is no perfect solution."

Most mapmakers devise projections with mathematics -- and nowadays the computer. But Robinson, who is considered the dean of U.S. cartographers, decided to take a different approach. "Mapmaking is as much an art form as a science," he argues. Thus he began by visualizing the way each country ought to look on a map, then turned to mathematics to delineate its shape. "What I really did," says Robinson, "was create a portrait of the earth."

There are still distortions in his map, both at the equator and at the poles, depending upon the distance from 38 degrees north or 38 degrees south, which he chose as his standard parallels. "Only at these latitudes are the size and shape relationships accurate, as they are on the globe," says Robinson. To convey a sense of roundness, the map has been given curved sides. The Geographic Society's new map, like its predecessor, is centered on Europe, in part because focusing on the U.S. would divide the Asian landmass. The result, declares Garver, is "the best balance available between geography and aesthetics."

Robinson's map, though bound to be widely adopted, is unlikely to end the bitter disputes that map-makers have waged for centuries. Inevitably, specialized maps will offer other perspectives and schemes, including polar shots from space. The new map coincides with the society's current campaign for geographic literacy, and it comes just in time. A recent Gallup poll showed that 3 out of 10 Americans cannot distinguish north from south on a map.