Doomsday Seed Vault, Part 2 (TreeHugger)
About a year ago Treehugger reported on the Norwegian government’s plans to build a subterranean vault to hold samples of the world’s seeds. When completed next year, it will hold 3 million seeds that are being preserved to continue the world’s agricultural diversity. Detailed plans have now been released and it is chilling… The vault will be built 120 metres into the side of a frozen mountain on the remote Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, near the North Pole. The location was chosen because it is always between – 4 and -6 degrees, but there will be cooling units to drop the temperature to -18 degrees C so if the units fail, the seeds won’t germinate.
Continue reading here.
i have thought about this one for a couple days – i hope it never comes to the day we need that vault… being a gardener myself, i often grow from seed
and understand that we must be aware of the importance of their protection – once they are gone, they are gone.
the seed business is not much different from the music business perhaps in that only a few control and “own” the industry. our local seed supplier (Fedco Seeds) in support of the results of a customer survey has refused to carry any Monsanto varieties anymore – a powerful statement for a small business to make…
owning the right to a seed is a strange concept to me…
may i add…
all the seeds in the world won’t help if we don’t have the pollinators…
http://abfnet.org/news/honey-bee-die-off-alarms-beekeepers-crop-growers-researchers/
and i suppose water and soil must be considered parts of the equation –
will there be vaults made for all of the above?