FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2001
Contact: Kate Larson, 800-736-1293
www.odtmaps.com
Map Makes History On WEST WING
TV's favorite press secretary, West Wing's CJ Craig "freaked out" at the sight of a new view of the world. The show is fictional, but the map is fact! CJ was stunned by the real Peters Projection world map.
What CJ Craig saw on June 20th's episode of NBC's WEST WING is a map commonly seen in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America although almost unheard of in North America. Until West Wing's script writers discovered the map! A fictional group, the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality, pitched President Bartlet's staff to "aggressively support" legislation mandating every public school in America teach geography using the Peters Projection map.
Developed by Arno Peters and introduced in Europe in 1974, more than 83 million maps are now in circulation world-wide. Distributed by ODT, Inc. in Amherst, Massachusetts, this new view of the world is a shock to many first time viewers like CJ. The countries look different from what we are used to seeing. In fact, the Peters Projection map shows all countries in their true size and proportion. One square inch on the map represents an equal number of square miles anywhere in the world. Peters Projection World maps are available from local book or map stores or directly from ODT, Inc. at 1-800-736-1293 www.odtmaps.com
The Peters Projection map has generated a firestorm of controversy. It has passionate fans and staunch detractors. Conservative Thomas Sowell criticized advocates of "political correctness" for supporting the Peters Projection in "Vision of the Anointed." Many faith-based, social justice organizations, including Oxfam, the National Council of Churches, and the Mennonite Central Committee, support the Peters as being more accurate and more-importantly…fair to all peoples.
The Peters is in a class of map projections called equal-area maps. On the familiar Mercator projection, Greenland appears to be the same size as Africa. However Africa, at 11.6 million square miles, is really more than 14 times larger than Greenland at 0.8 million square miles. Please feel free to link your web site to the "Explanation of the Peters Projection Map."
