Gardening perspective from Santa Monica, CA.
Svalbard Seed Vault: Saving Seeds For The Future
Posted 03-03-2008 at 10:04 PM by smgardener
As noted in the New York Times, and in The Scotsman, the seed storage facility at Svalbard, in Norway, opened last week.
Video at CNN.
Image Courtesy Wired
Quote:
DEEP inside a frozen Norwegian mountain, behind an entrance blown out of the rock and patrolled by polar bears, scientists have been stockpiling the world's insurance policy against a natural disaster.
With climate change pushing global temperatures beyond previous limits, it is impossible to predict how crops will fare across the globe, so a contingency plan is required.
For months, countries have been sending samples of their seeds to Norway, to be housed at -18C in a giant refrigerator referred to by the nation's media as the "Doomsday Vault".
Should a day come when the fields burn in the face of a nuclear explosion or drought, the vault will be plundered to rejuvenate the world's food supplies.
With climate change pushing global temperatures beyond previous limits, it is impossible to predict how crops will fare across the globe, so a contingency plan is required.
For months, countries have been sending samples of their seeds to Norway, to be housed at -18C in a giant refrigerator referred to by the nation's media as the "Doomsday Vault".
Should a day come when the fields burn in the face of a nuclear explosion or drought, the vault will be plundered to rejuvenate the world's food supplies.
Quote:
"This is an insurance policy for the world's most valuable natural resource," says Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is spearheading the project.
Image Courtesy Wired
Total Comments 1
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I'm glad someone is doing this! I suppose we can't take for granted that whatever we have now will always be available to us. A back up plan seems like a very good idea.
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