Earth’s Black Box.

We don’t invent these stories. We don’t even seek them out. They find us so we walk the walk and read, research, think, analyze, and summarize the data.

Just when I started thinking that no one is paying attention to the events surrounding our planet and the possible outcome of ending our tenure as guests here I find myself pleasantly surprised that others are indeed paying attention. They are also reacting to the events that promise to kill us all. There is no nice way to say this unless you are a little kid.

Seven days ago Cameron Duke published an article in LiveScience titled ” Indestructible “Black Box” will record our planet’s demise in minute detail.”

The disaster recorder aims to set us on a better path by watching our every move. Every commercial flight you have ever taken has been recorded. Every tug of the yoke was dutifully logged by a little recording device in the tail of the aircraft. It’s the infamous ‘black box’ that search and rescue crew scan the crash site for any time an aviation incident occurs. Its observations are a clear account of how the whole thing went down.

Next year our planet will get one of these disaster recorders as well.

Called Earth’s Black Box, the project is meant to painstakingly record every step of the way to our planet’s demise.

The solar-powered vault will be roughly the length of a school bus and the shape of an upside-down curb stop. And the entire thing will be encased in 3-inch thick steel designed to withstand catastrophe. Earth’s Black Box will be placed in the most secure location on Earth, which is Tasmania.

The project, which is a collaboration between the University of Tasmania, a communications firm called Clemenger BBDO, and an art collective called the Glue Society, is slated to begin construction in early 2022.

While its usefulness to post-apocalyptic humanity is an open question, its value in the immediate future is more easily assessed.

While some might dismiss the project as being a monument to climate pessimism, the clear intention in this black box is not simply to record our impending doom, but instead help steer us away from it, say its creators. That is, even if it can only give us a nudge in the right direction. Maybe it’s time we start paying attention.

This is awesome.