According to Reuters, “Australian scientists and artists are looking to hold the world accountable for the Earth’s future by creating an ‘indestructible’ storage device to record humanity’s handling of the climate change crisis.” The device, which they dubbed “Earth’s Black Box,” will record “every step that humanity takes towards or away from the impending climate catastrophe.”
I understand people’s need to leave something behind, and I can see why they think we are all going to die soon. But what are we going to show, how foolish we were? What have we got to show that will make future inhabitants of Earth avoid mistakes?
In my eyes, we need to focus on the here and now, on building our lives rather than documenting our deaths. After all, the only reason we are nearing extinction is our relentless drive to destroy each other, regardless of the fact that we are destroying the entire world in the process. If we only stopped trying to destroy each other, we would stop destroying the planet and everything would be fine.
Now, before we are gone, we should bring this truth to everyone’s awareness and start changing our relationships toward mutual support and improved connections. We can build solidarity among us, but we must first accept that it is necessary for our survival. Otherwise, our obstinate egos will not allow us to think of anyone but ourselves.
Even this initiative, which seems like a good idea, leads us in the wrong direction: away from thinking about connection and toward accepting an inevitable destruction. It is not inevitable; it will not happen if we focus on fostering solidarity rather than hostility.
We needn’t document the past; we need to build the future. We can build a beautiful future, but we can only build it together. If we build it for each other and not only for ourselves, everyone will be safe and sound, and there will be no climate catastrophe to document.
Photo Caption:
Scientists Build Indestructible Earth Black Box To Record Climate Change And Civilisation, 10 Dec 2021 Credit: Earth’s Black Box/Cover Images