The Beauty – and Importance – of the Globe

From the Marshall Memo #449

“We live on a sphere, turning in the light of a star,” says airline pilot/author Mark Vanhoenacker in this charming New York Times article. He believes that the globe is the best way to envision humans’ position in the universe, and bemoans the fact that fewer and fewer classrooms and living rooms have one. In classrooms, this may be a result of budget cuts and the de-emphasis of geography compared to reading and math. In people’s homes, it may have something to do with the hubris of globalization and the ready availability of online maps.

We lose a lot without a real globe, says Vanhoenacker. “The view of a Roman street on Google Maps is wonderful – but only after a globe has shown you Italy.” In addition, any flat map has major inadequacies – the Mercator, the Equidistant conic, the Sinusoidal equal area. “Only a globe is both simple and right,” he says, “– simple because it’s right. Globes show why maps are imperfect – but also what maps even are.” 

And they are the best hands-on tools for demonstrating concepts like the seasons and the length of days at different times of year. “Every kid deserves a globe to ponder (and touch)… [N]othing so easily and beautifully conjures our small place in a big scheme. After all, we live not in but on a world, one so achingly beautiful that we can hardly imagine we are free to gaze or sit down upon it anytime we like.” 

“The World Is Flat, Again” by Mark Vanhoenacker in The New York Times, Aug. 19, 2012, 

http://nyti.ms/Pnw50p