Unfortunately, Mercator projection strikes again. Though there is a lot of 'unused' land near the poles, there is still a lot of 'used' land near the equator.

Unfortunately, Mercator projection strikes again. Though there is a lot of 'unused' land near the poles, there is still a lot of 'used' land near the equator. But map projections distort this, as all 3D-2D projections must. Here's an example: https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/true-size-countries-mercator-map-projection-james-talmage-damon-maneice-15-5790ccdb4c7fd__880.jpg https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/0... Africa is set to grow to ~4B people by 2099, India to ~2B, by 2099. Those 'unused' areas my find a use one way or another.