A while ago I attended a small talk on climate change, and since then I have had the following idea in my head: A lot of people don't believe that humans are responsible for climate change because it they don't see a direct action-reaction chain. It's hard to understand that a drought or flood in a far away region of the world could be caused by what's coming out of my tailpipe. People have been spewing nasty stuff into the atmosphere for generations and the world is still turning, so why should that change during my lifetime? For many people, just listening to theory and dry facts is too much, if you want them to remember something, they have to
see it.
So I imagined a wheel with a handle. Only the handle isn't directly connected to the wheel, but has some sort of delay mechanism. When you start turning the handle, the wheel is motionless, then it barely starts to turn. After a while you slow down and stop turning the handle, but the wheel keeps spinning. In fact, it's still accelerating. You turn the handle backwards, but the wheel keeps spinning.
I can imagine using this prop when demonstrating how humans effect the climate: First humans pollute (turn the handle), with no noticeable difference (wheel barely moving). At some point we've added enough change to the (eco)system that the wheel keeps spinning, even if we stop or pedal backwards. If we stop before a certain point, then the wheel will gradually slow down, else it will accelerate until it flies apart. I believe the Earth is at the point when humans should slow down, maybe even stop pedalling.
In the near future I may have the chance to organize a few talks on climate change myself, and I'm thinking about constructing a working model of this "Climate Machine". What do you guys think? Will it help get the message through? Any ideas on how to actually build it?
I think the best bet would be to start with a bicycle's rear wheel in which the hub freewheels when not pedalling. But what about the delay mechanism? I thought about a spiral spring from an old clock to store energy. But will that be enough? Maybe a small brake so that the acceleration phase can be slowed down in the beginning. I'll add that I'd like this prop to be "travel size", not much larger than the wheel itself, and not heavier than 5kg (11lbs).
Thanks for any suggestions
