Even in the age of Google Earth, people still buy globes. Here’s why they remain so alluring

By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A bespoke globe in the age of Google Earth? London globemaker Peter Bellerby says plenty of people are shelling out big money for orbs as large as 50 inches across. He says his company sells about 600 a year, the work of two dozen artists and cartographers. They can cost as little as 1,290 British pounds (about $1,600) to upwards of six figures. The orbs are no longer used for their original purpose — navigation. But the human yearning to understand our relationship to each other and the cosmos, he and other globe experts say, maintain the appeal. The challenge is to draw disputed boundaries in a way that can survive customs in nations that are sensitive, such as China.