‘Black Box’ in Australia to record climate crisis for future generations

The 10-metre-long steel monolith was designed to withstand natural disasters and will be powered by solar and thermal energy.

An "indestructible" storage device will record humanity’s handling of the climate change crisis in an effort to hold the world accountable.

Inspired by an aeroplane’s flight recorder, the "Earth’s Black Box" will be built in 2022 on the remote west coast of Tasmania, an area deemed geographically and politically stable, its creators said in a statement.

It comes after UN climate talks in Glasgow ended last month with a deal that kept alive hopes of capping global warming at 1.5C.

The 10-metre-long steel monolith was designed to withstand natural disasters and will be powered by solar and thermal energy. It is supported by Australian scientists and artists ranging from marketing communications company Clemenger BBDO to the University of Tasmania.

The device, which will be connected to the internet, will use an algorithm to regularly scrape data –measurements of land and sea temperatures, ocean acidification, atmospheric CO2, species extinction, land-use changes, as well as things like human population, military spending and energy consumption, and contextual data such as newspaper headlines and social media posts – relating to climate change and store it automatically.

The Black Box is designed to last generations (Reuters)

It will be filled with storage drives containing climate-change related data such as average temperatures and global energy consumption.

"Earth Black Box is a structure and device that will record every step that humanity takes towards or away from the impending climate catastrophe," said Jim Curtis, the executive creative director at Clemenger BBDO, which came up with the idea for the black box.

He said not only would the box provide the world with a wealth of data on climate change, the information recorded would also help hold leaders accountable and leave lessons for future generations.

"If the worst is to happen and as a civilization we crash as a result of climate change, this indestructible box will be there and will record every detail of that," Curtis said.

"So whoever’s left, or whoever finds it afterwards, learns from our mistakes."