Why Is A Black Box Recorder Being Made For Our Home World And What Reasons Do A Communications Company, A University, And An Art Collective Have For Making One?

The Purpose Of A Black Box Recorder

You’re flying home after a business meeting. You’re going home for the holidays. You’re flying across the country for a vacation. You’re returning by air from your best friend's wedding. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter why you’re flying. There’s always one little thing that your flights have in common. Every airliner is fitted with a black box.

The black box recorders on airlines serve to record the last minutes of a doomed flight. When the passengers of flight 93 decided to take action when terrorists took over the plane and planned to use it to ram another location in the United States, the black box recorded what went on in the background as the pilots lost the plane. In every instance of a plane crash where there’s been an airliner go down, the black box has been there to answer the question — why?

Next year, the planet Earth will be given its’ very own black box. Earth, it seems, now needs a disaster recorder.

Fortunately, the project of giving the earth its’ own ‘Black Box’ is meant to hopefully direct us on what we’re doing wrong rather than just to record our steps on the way to the planet’s demise. This solar-powered vault will be nearly the size of a school bus and the shape of an inverted curb stop. In all, the entire thing will be housed within a 3-inch-thick steel design that is made to withstand catastrophic events.

Much the way an aircraft’s black box is built into the safest part of the plane, our planet’s black box will be placed in the safest place on Earth, which is apparently in Tasmania. When it goes active the Earth’s Black Box will be full of hard drives that will record and store climate information according to ABC News Australia.

A collaborative effort between a communications firm, Clemenger BBDO, The University of Tasmania and an art Collective called the Glue Society, the construction of Earth’s Black Box is scheduled to start in early 2022. Once completed, it will collect recordings on earth's temperatures, ocean acidification, land use, military spending, energy usage, and the growth of the human population.

The black box will also come news headlines, social media posts, and record climate change conferences between heads of state.

Considering its’ artistic side, it is an undeniably striking concept. With a sharp, angular structure, lined with solar panels and located on a rocky spot in a remote desert, it will catch the eye of anyone that happens to visit.

“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. It is also there to hold leaders to account — to make sure their action or inaction is recorded.”

— Jim Curtis Executive Director at Clemmenger BBDO to ABC News Australia

Going to the website of the project, earthsblackbox.com, Earth’s Black Box has a simple and honest statement of fact that we should all take very seriously.

Unless we dramatically transform our way of life, climate change and other man-made perils will cause our civilization to crash.

My Thoughts

We can’t all live on Mars in one of Elon Musks Martian colonies or even on the colony proposed by former President Trump's executive orders that got us back into the space race. It’s just not that feasible. For many, they wouldn’t want to and they probably couldn’t survive the rigors of spaceflight. All that considered, wouldn't it be cool?

Perhaps it’s prudent that we leave behind a recording of how we got to where we are, how we fell to extinction, or into anarchy and chaos that ultimately brings about our downfall as a species. We aren’t likely to change, sadly, and that lack of change will potentially be our downfall.

From plastics littering the landscapes and polluting the oceans, to CO2 emission, to the scourge that is fossil fuels, and past those issues to the obvious fact we can’t even get along as a species that share the same world, we certainly live in a time that feels doomed. As scientists explore ways to defend the planet from its’ extinction, our elected leaders continue to bicker and squabble over what should be simple, serving their people's best interests. Yet, for most of us, I’d hazard a guess that we aren’t doing everything we can to defend the longevity of our home on this world either, so who am I to judge our leaders.

The Earth’s Black Box can be a tool to show us what we’re doing wrong if we ever listen, or to show visitors someday, or a new era of humanity returning to our planet, what not to do. Something for us all to think about.