Australian scientists and artists are teaming up for an innovative project: they’re working on a “Black Box of the Planet.” This unique endeavor aims to hold the world accountable for its actions. Essentially, they’re creating a comprehensive record, like a black box, that will help us understand and address the impact of human activities on the Earth. It’s a collaborative effort to promote awareness and responsibility for the well-being of our planet.
About Earth Black Box
- It will be constructed in Tasmania, an Australian island state off the south coast.
- Tasmania was chosen for its relative geopolitical and environmental safety.
- It is a 33-foot-long box made of 3-inch-thick steel is expected to be completed in 2022.
- The data will be stored on a giant, automated, solar-powered hard drive with a capacity to collect information for about 50 years.
- The purpose of the device is to provide an unbiased account of the events that lead to the demise of the planet, hold accountability for future generations, and inspire urgent action.
How will the Earth Black Box Work?
- The box will be filled with a mass of storage drives and have internet connectivity, all powered by solar panels on the structure’s roof.
- Batteries will provide backup power storage. The box will record our actions (or inaction) by searching the internet for keywords relating to climate change from newspapers, social media and peer-reviewed journals.
- It will also collect daily metrics including average oceanic and land temperatures, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and biodiversity loss.
- Hence, the idea behind this box is that if the Earth does crash as a result of climate change, this indestructible recording device will be there for whoever’s left to learn from that.
Features
- It will operate much like a plane’s flight recorder, which records an aircraft’s final moments before crashing.
- If civilization does crash, this box will survive with a completely objective data story.
- It will be designed to be resilient against threats including cyclones, earthquakes and, with its sloped walls, attacks by vandals.
- It will collect daily metrics, including average oceanic and land temperatures, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and biodiversity loss.
Significance
Black box will actually help in preventing a major climate change catastrophe. Climate change is one of the gravest threats humanity faces and is exacerbating economic and health inequalities, increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters and threatening the world’s food supply.
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