One cannot deny that climate change is a source of concern. It is one of the most serious issues at the moment. In early 2022, an indestructible black box will be built and placed on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia. This will help understand what steps we are taking to combat climate change. In the same way that black boxes record flight, ship, and car journeys and provide evidence in the event of an accident, this black box will record “every step we take towards this catastrophe.”
According to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report, “Earth’s Black Box” will keep track of every conversation about climate change. This will certainly be handy for future generations to see what actions we took and how they led to the “demise of the planet.” The goal is to inform future generations about what happened and to encourage people to take immediate action. Clemenger BBDO, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Tasmania, is the company behind this project.
The box will act as an indestructible and independent ledger of the ‘health’ of our planet
The construction will take place on Tasmania’s west coast from 3-inch thick steel and covered with solar panels. Given the geopolitical and geological stability of the area, the black box should survive if something catastrophic occurs. The black box will be about the size of a city bus, with storage drives inside that will record climate change conversations as well as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and average temperatures. The storage drives within Earth’s Black Box may last between 30 and 50 years.
“The box will act as an indestructible and independent ledger of the ‘health’ of our planet,” Jonathan Kneebone, artist, and director of the artistic collective Glue Society, which is involved with the project, told CNN. “And we hope it will hold leaders to account and inspire action and reaction in the broader population.” “It is a very creative way of approaching what’s potentially the most disastrous outcome of the climate crisis by essentially creating this ‘doomsday vault’ for [climate] data,” says Vladislav Kaim. Kaim is a young climate activist from Moldova who is among the UN Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.
It is still early to know the effectiveness of this black box. Whether or not it will actually help prevent a major climate change disaster. But it has already begun recording data, and there is a dedicated website for Earth’s Black Box. It is currently in beta, where one can view recorded data of tweets, videos, and articles about climate change.
