This great piece by Peter Barber on Ten Maps that Changed the World (via Kottke) put me in mind of one of my favorite maps. I can’t claim that it should oust any of Barber’s top ten, but it’s a map that should change the world, and maybe someday it will.

It’s Buckmister Fuller’s Dymaxion map. First published as the Air Ocean World Map, Fuller’s map minimizes the distortions that come from projecting a round globe onto a flat map by first transforming the globe into a polyhedron, then unfolding the polyhedron.

In addition to doing a good job of maintaining proper proportions among land masses, the Dymaxion map is usually presented in a way that puts aside the political and historical baggage that affects most maps. Instead of the usual North-is-up, South-is-down arrangement, which invites arbitrary East-versus-West distinctions, the Dymaxion world map usually shows the world with the North pole at the center.

Even more important is the fact that the Dymaxion map shows how closely connected the world’s land masses are. Or, in another variation, how the world’s oceans flow together to make us one great planet of water. A picture like this should help us to think about the fact that we’re all neighbors in a small place. Everything that happens, be it war in Africa or an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, affects all of us. So let’s pay attention.

Images are from Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain (Dymaxion Map Unfolded, top), the GNU Free Documentation License (Dymaxion map animation, middle) or Creative Commons license (Dymaxion ocean map, bottom).