Workers spray concrete on the walls of the Svalbard Global Seed
Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway, during the construction phase in August.
In announcing it would create a global seed bank on the Svalbard Islands,
Norway did not say exactly where but the archipelago includes a few
existing settlements like this one at Alesund
Have you ever wondered what would happen to the world's supply of seeds in case
of a global catastrophe?
Something such as plant epidemics, natural disasters like flooding, the dreaded climate change, or war?
Are you aware of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Oslo, Norway?
It is called the "Doomday Vault."
The vault is blasted into the permafrost of the Arctic, 300 miles from the mainland. The temperature of the vault will be kept at zero degrees Fahrenheit. It's like a safe-deposit box. Each country owns what they deposit in the vault and can take it out at their own will
The vault is due to open February 26, 2008.
"It's very satisfying to see the vault evolve from a bold concept to an impressive facility that has everything we need to protect crop biodiversity," said Norway's Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen.
Norway first proposed building what it called a "Noah's Ark" for the world's seeds in June 2005, and started construction a year later, blasting a nearly 400-foot (120-meter) tunnel into a frozen mountain and placing the vault for foil-wrapped seeds deep inside. Each sample holds about 500 seeds."
There already are about 14,000 seed banks in the world run by individual countries. But some of these have already been wiped out, such as in the Philippines, destroyed by a typhoon, South Asia, destroyed by tsunami, or in Iraq (looters) and Afghanistan (by Taliban), destroyed by war. The Svalbard vault is intended as a final backup for all other seed banks.
"The vast collection is intended as a hedge against disaster so that food production can be restarted anywhere on the planet should it be threatened by a regional or global catastrophe."
Click on the icon below for information about the complete history of the Doomsday Vault, including frequently asked questions:
Were you aware we even had "seed banks" around the world?
Do you think this is a cool idea?
Are you "unglued" when you realize the seed banks of some countries have already been destroyed and it took until 2008 to get a "Doomsday Vault?" I mean, come on ....
