Posted on 12/07/2021 9:43:47 AM PST by Red Badger
Illustration of Earth's Black Box. (Earth's Black Box)
At a distant end of the Earth – hidden somewhere on the remote Australian island of Tasmania – a strange structure is about to witness and record the end of the world as we know it.
The project, called Earth's Black Box, is a giant steel installation, soon to be filled with hard drives powered by solar panels, each of them documenting and preserving a stream of real-time scientific updates and analysis on the gloomiest issues the world faces.
Information related to climate change, species extinction, environmental pollution, and impacts on health will all be chronicled in the monolithic structure – so that if some future society might one day discover the archive, they'll be able to piece together what happened to our planet.
"Unless we dramatically transform our way of life, climate change and other man-made perils will cause our civilization to crash," the Earth's Black Box website explains.
"Earth's Black Box will record every step we take towards this catastrophe. Hundreds of data sets, measurements and interactions relating to the health of our planet will be continuously collected and safely stored for future generations."
""Illustration of Earth's Black Box. (Earth's Black Box)
In a sense, the box, which evokes the brutalist design of Norway's famous 'Doomsday Vault', actually serves a somewhat complementary purpose.
While the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a fortress designed to protect a vital backup of the world's seeds in case the worst ever happens, Earth's Black Box is conceived as an ongoing record of the world's trajectory towards a dire predicament.
"The idea is 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," Jim Curtis, executive creative director at marketing agency Clemenger BBDO, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
"It's also there to hold leaders to account – to make sure their action or inaction is recorded."
The project – a collaboration between Clemenger BBDO, creative agency The Glue Society, and researchers at the University of Tasmania – is due to be completed in its undisclosed location in early 2022, but the box's systems are already partially active, in that they are 'live recording' environmental updates in a beta test.
Part of the point of the exercise, the box's makers say, is to help nudge humanity away from doomsday-like scenarios, with the mere existence of the installation hopefully encouraging today's society to act more progressively and responsibly in terms of climate action and environmental stewardship.
"" Illustration of Earth's Black Box. (Earth's Black Box)
"When people know they're being recorded, it does have an influence on what they do and say," The Glue Society's Jonathan Kneebone told the ABC.
"That's our role if anything, to be something in the back of everyone's mind."
While some might belittle Earth's Black Box as a PR stunt designed to capture people's attention – as opposed to a serious scientific documentation project – there's no doubting the world urgently needs more attention and action on these issues, no matter how those eyeballs are secured.
In a world where ice sheets are destabilizing in response to unprecedented levels of global warming, where greenhouse gas emissions are headed the wrong way, where water is running out, and where animals are vanishing with such speed that scientists say we've entered our planet's sixth mass extinction, this is not the time to look away.
"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," the Earth's Black Box makers say.
"How the story ends is completely up to us."
Kinda redundant. I thought that’s what the New York Times and Washington Post were doing?
The Black Box downunder
Steel rusts, however “stainless”. Unless maintained, in a few hundred years it will be gone.
“due to be completed in an undisclosed location” in 2022. Tasmania is not a very big place. I wonder how long they think it will be before someone finds it on Google Earth.
They're going to place it hanging off the edge of a hill?
And who will check this data for accuracy? I’m guessing it will be the same frauds who predicted that the polar ice cap will be gone by the year 2013.
Garbage in, garbage out. Who decides what information to store?
The drought is so bad Clintons Library is no where near the water anymore
And they may not have the technology to access the data.
one second ?
I see that column hiding behind the tree.
Will they include this gem?
BILL CLINTON’S PRESIDENTIAL LIE-BURY AND MASSAGE PARLOR.................
Wrong. How the story ends is completely up to God.
Yep. If the Earth went back to the stone age there would be no electricity to run the computers. There might not even be diesel fuel to run generators. You’d have to store it in traditional form, like written texts. Maybe also phonograph records with manual turntables. There would not even be diesel fuel to run generators.
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