I do believe our maps have influenced people’s ideas quite a lot and maybe even led some people towards flat eartherism. I have a friend who believes Trump wants Greenland because of this very projection and it’s absurd overexaggeration.
Not to mention, and mildly relevant to OP, it also obscures the comically large and absolutely real size of the Pacific Ocean:
That is true for a lot of places though. The ISS is only ~400 kilometres from the earth. Unless you are on a shipping lane (or close to a shore), most places on the ocean will be more than 400km from other people. Also many places in the sahara, Atacama, Gobi desert, Siberia, Canada, Alaska, Greenland …
I do believe our maps have influenced people’s ideas quite a lot and maybe even led some people towards flat eartherism. I have a friend who believes Trump wants Greenland because of this very projection and it’s absurd overexaggeration.
Not to mention, and mildly relevant to OP, it also obscures the comically large and absolutely real size of the Pacific Ocean:
Point nemo. If ur boat is there then the closest person to u is in the iss.
That is true for a lot of places though. The ISS is only ~400 kilometres from the earth. Unless you are on a shipping lane (or close to a shore), most places on the ocean will be more than 400km from other people. Also many places in the sahara, Atacama, Gobi desert, Siberia, Canada, Alaska, Greenland …
finally a map only with New Zealand
Isn’t this rotated also? Instead of N/S being at the top/bottom, this looks to be rotated counter-clockwise 45°.