The striking monolith, known as "Earth's Black Box,' will be perched on the granite landscape of western Tasmania - an island about 150 miles off the Australian mainland - and will be up and running by the end of the year, if all goes to plan. The box will record hundreds of climate data points and pieces of contextual information. It is the size of city bus and made of steel walls, battery storage and solar panels
In the immediate future, the box will be talking to the world, communicating current data sets and findings. People will be able to view the data online and visitors to the site will be able to connect to the box via their cellphones. But long-term, the idea is to create a record for future civilizations if climate change wipes out humanity. It will provide an unbiased account of the events that lead to the demise of the planet, according to the project's website.