There is a projection called Equal Earth. It was published in 2018, it is equal-area, and it is fine.
Until recently, I did not care very much about it. Cartographers invent projections all the time, and there is nothing objectionable about three cartographers deciding that the existing equal-area projections did not quite suit their aesthetic preferences and designing another one.
What made me start caring was the United Nations vote in September 2026 encouraging governments and institutions to adopt, disseminate, and use Equal Earth in contexts where the relative areas of continents matter.[^un] To be fair, the UN resolution does not claim that Equal Earth is the only legitimate projection: the debate explicitly recognized that different projections serve different purposes, and several delegations emphasized broader support for equal-area projections rather than any exclusive endorsement of one design.[^un] But once a particular projection is being singled out by an interna