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Daily Bread

A showcase of things we've done, things we like and other random rantings...

26.2.08

Archipelgo of Svalbard: Norway's Sub-Zero Doomsday Seed Bank

Funded by the Global Crop Diversity Trust - which in turn is funded by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International - The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is basically a bomb shelter (designed to withstand a direct Nuclear attack), is earthquake proof (already tested at a 6.2 magnitude) and is maintained at negative minus 0.4 Fahrenheit / -17.5 Celsius. Four hundrede and twenty five feet into a frozen mountain, and sixty-two miles south of the north pole, the vault is intended as a backup for the other hundreds of seed banks the world round, in case of catastrophic events - designated vaguely as "mad-made or otherwise". Designed to last 1,000 years, and capable of holding 4.5 million seeds, the vault is intended to take deposits from any country willing - at no cost - and every county can withraw at any time, whenever they need.

The main entrance:



The door handle:


A seed-bearing do-gooder, within the vault:
posted by carlito sway at 06:25
2 Comments:
Blogger Bruce said...
Whoa, facinating. I've heard of places where the oldest existing form of various fruits and vegetables are raised in protected environments (there is an apple orchard somewhere in Russia, I think, that has proto-apple trees that have been maintained presumably for hundreds of years) in case of disasters that devastate crops. But seed banks may even be approaching the problem at a more basic level.

Dad
17:32  
Blogger Bruce said...
Whoa, facinating. I've heard of places where the oldest existing form of various fruits and vegetables are raised in protected environments (there is an apple orchard somewhere in Russia, I think, that has proto-apple trees that have been maintained presumably for hundreds of years) in case of disasters that devastate crops. But seed banks may even be approaching the problem at a more basic level.

Dad
17:33  

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