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Work Begins on Arctic Seed Vault

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sperm-bank-by-any-other-name dept.

Aryabhata writes "BBC reports that Norway is starting construction on a 'doomsday vault' in the Arctic which is designed to house all known varieties of the world's crops. The vault's purpose is to ensure survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change; and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may have been wiped out. 'More than 100 countries have backed the vault, which will store seeds, packaged in foil, at sub-zero temperatures. ... Norway's Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen has called the vault a "Noah's Ark on Svalbard."'"

33 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. My experiences with seed storage by nizo · · Score: 4, Funny

    The sad part comes when in 50 years this vault is eagerly opened and found to only contain many many dead weevils.

    --
    I Am My Own Worst Enemy
    1. Re:My experiences with seed storage by DCowern · · Score: 4, Funny

      The sad part comes when in 50 years this vault is eagerly opened and found to only contain many many dead weevils.

      To be honest, if I had to choose between a barren wasteland with no hope of regenerating plant life for millions of years and the potential for some surviving seeds, I'm going to have to go with the lesser of the two weevils.

    2. Re:My experiences with seed storage by Walt+Dismal · · Score: 3, Funny

      The solution is to strategically locate containers of lutefisk around the vault. There are some things even weevils, cockroaches and rats cannot stand to eat, and mankind will be the better for it. Y'all ever been to Minnesota?

  2. Vault 13 by Dolly_Llama · · Score: 5, Funny

    General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?

    Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature

    --

    Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan

  3. I hate to have a jaded eye... by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but it would really be ironic if, sometime in the distant future, the vault is broken open and actually causes the destruction of future life because of ecosystem incompatibilities. I say live and let die. The Earth seems quite adept at recovering and moving on over its billions of years. We weren't the first ones here, nor the last. We are not even a fraction of a blink of an eye to the Earth.

    --
    We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    1. Re:I hate to have a jaded eye... by RsG · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Uh, these are crop seeds. They aren't trying to preserve wild organisms or anything like that.

      Domesticated crops can't even handle your average weed all that well. They aren't part of any natural ecosystem (some can't even breed without human help). They're essentially dependant on us to survive, which is exactly why we need to have a backup stored, in case we fuck up our existing stocks. How exactly would this "cause the destruction of future life"? Attack of the killer tomatos maybe?

      And as for the earth adapting, who cares? The earth isn't in any danger, and never has been. There are plenty of events that would be disasterous for our species, and plenty of other events that would be equally disasterous for other species, but as you rightly say, life would adapt and continue. However, we might not be around to see it.

      This vault has nothing to do with helping the earth adapt and everything to do with helping future humans adapt/recover.

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    2. Re:I hate to have a jaded eye... by oni · · Score: 5, Funny

      2145. It was after the gene wars. Mankind huddled in the dark on baron continents, fighting each other for tiny scraps of meat. But there was a hero; one with a memory of the before time and the scrapers, and the courage to make the dangerous journey to the artica where, the ancient scrolls hinted, the salvation of mankind might be found.

      For over a decade, he and his brave knights fought against danger and fortune to make their way to the artica. Many died. Much was lost. But one day, our intrepid hero arrived home, in his tiny, all-but-dead village. He carried in his hand, a single vile.

      "this is all that has survived of my trip" he explained. "though the artica contained many wonders, our journey was hard, and most of our cargo was lost. We managed to save this one plant. It shall be the foundation of a new human culture. We shall plant it and tend it, and we shall teach our children to cherish it. This plant is a gift from our distant ancestors. It's name" (he turns the vile on its side so that he can read the inscription) "is, Kudzu"

    3. Re:I hate to have a jaded eye... by Surt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Kudzu is real good for feeding to cows. It's just a hassle that it kills everything else, but in your dark future it might actually be quite a godsend.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    4. Re:I hate to have a jaded eye... by JSC · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm sorry but I just gotta...

      "Mankind huddled in the dark on baron continents..." Are you sure they're not huddling on duke continents or maybe count continents? Or did you mean "barren" continents.

      And then there's "He carried in his hand, a single vile." A single vile what? What vile thing does he later turn on its side so he can read the inscription? Or did you perchance mean "vial"?

      The sad thing is that, based on the grammar and spelling, I'm guessing that you're American. Since I'm also American, you'll understand why I find posts like yours so humiliating and embarrassing. (If you're not an American, I humbly apologize. I doubt that I would do as well in your native language.)

      Please learn the damn language before you write in it.

      --
      Time's fun when you're having flies. - Kermit the Frog
  4. The Moon by mr_stinky_britches · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about putting the vault somewhere on the moon? If there was a major nuclear disaster...couldn't the effects screw up the poles of the earth too?

    --
    Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
    1. Re:The Moon by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If we're clawing our way out of the muck after doomsday, we're going to have a hard enough time getting to the Arctic, much less the Moon.

      --
      Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
    2. Re:The Moon by RsG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Think smaller than that.

      Anything that renders the human race extinct, by definitiion also renders these seed vaults irrelevant. This means that we mostly consider dangers arising from either war, plauge or natural disaster.

      War won't affect the poles as much as it will the rest of the world. There are no strategically signifigant targets nearby to worry about. Plague that wipes out crops won't affect frozen seeds in hard to reach places. And the only natural disasters I can think of that would matter here are things like global warming and asteroid impacts - and as long as you don't build somewhere that'll flood, you should be safe from those.

      The moon is much harder to get to. If we have a war, or mass starvation due to crop failure, we'd be better off with the seeds close to hand. And asteroid impacts are a much larger issue on the moon (no atmosphere to block them), as is radiation (which would sterilize the seeds), so it's not like they'd be a whole lot safer there than here.

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    3. Re:The Moon by Surt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      War won't affect the poles as much as it will the rest of the world. There are no strategically signifigant targets nearby to worry about.

      Except for the seed vault. Can't have our surviving enemies getting their hands on that. Better nuke it.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    4. Re:The Moon by halcyon1234 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I'd much rather see some sort of fail-safe built into this vault. Humans have to periodically check in on the vault and press the button. If they don't press it after, say, 1,000 years, the vault goes into "reseed" mode. It assumes that:

      a) Humans are dead, dying, or incapable of reaching the vault

      b) Whatever knocked down the humans has dissapated over the last 1000 years, so it is safe for "human friendly" life.

      Of course, the 1000 years is arbitrary. I'd let a team of nuke'n'germ warfare folks come up with a number that was greater than the life expectency of thier most powerful kabooms. You could also hook up a Geiger counter to the release switch for an extra layer of protection.

      So, after the 1000 years is up, the vault springs into action. It barfs out whatever bacteria is needed to fertilize the land. The it starts shooting seeds-and-spores-and-stuff deployment packages across the globe. The SSS packages burst over land, raining seeds. This may have to be done in stages. Seed the keystone species of plants first, then once those have grown, fire off the strawberries and lilacs.

      The objective is to load up the vault with enough human-friendly stuff as possible. Plants that put out oxygen. Trees that have leaves, fruit, roots that are edible by human. Environmental engineer species. If humans are alive, life will get better for them. If humans have been wiped out, the packages should recreate an environment condusive to human life once more. Sure, humans might not be a dominant species for hundreds or hundreds of thousands of years, but the scales would be tipped in their favour.

      Heck, while we're at it, we might as well put as much data into the vault as possible. The complete history of humans in as many languages as possible (including all the screw-ups that lead to extinction). Put in as many Rosetta Stones as possible. Put frozen humans in there, too, so future generations (hopefully) don't think aliens seeded the planet.

      --
      UTF-8: There and Back Again
  5. More than likely... by DaSenator · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...the seed vault would probably end up being destroyed in the nuclear war.

    I can just see it now...

    "SoyLent Food Company - Good people making good food. Now in Green flavor!"

    --
    Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
  6. Manditory Master and Commander Quote: by dubmun · · Score: 3, Funny

    Which one would YOU choose?
    ...
    You must always choose the lesser of two weevils!

    --
    (end of post)
  7. Um, stupid place to put it... by kabocox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Um, I don't know about you, but I'd want several of these all over the global. They may need to re-think their idea though. If major planet disease/bioterror strike wiped out all our food sources and we really needed this to reseed the global food sources, what are the odds of no one being able to get there to unlock it? Or better yet we've nuked our selves back and we know that their is the vault and close to where it is, but unforunately it's being guarded by polar bears that are hungry... O.k. long term I'd put my money on the nuclearly mutanted savages rather than the polar bear, but why not several of these on each major land mass near major crop lands? Heck, why stop at stock piling seeds? Why not stockpile tractors and fertilizer and enough resources that you could feed a major city within a year from a single stock pile?

    1. Re:Um, stupid place to put it... by Frozen+Void · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Forward-thinking in case of doomsday events is likely absent.Its judged alarmist.Of course,The judging people who just don't care or willing to die anyway in such an event.
      Now,plant crops are most valuable thing we have now in this ecosystem(though its considered as basic as having water).You can't reinvent them from nothing(domesticating leftover post-doomsday event plants will take ages).Coal,water,uranium,iron ore don't disappear.

  8. Re:after considering all the facts by RsG · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually, if you really want to get technical about it, all our crop seeds are genetically altered. Domesticated plants and animals have been bred for specific purposes for thousands of years, and artifcial selection has altered the gene pool.

    In fact, half the danger to our current crops is due to genetic "monoculture", whereby the plants are all too genetically similar to each other. When you have field after field of practically identical plants, the possibility for a disease or parasite finding a niche is very high. Look at the Irish potatoe famine as an example of this.

    Hence the need for backups like this. Monsanto isn't the source of the problem, though they've certainly made it worse.

    --
    Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
  9. All the worlds eggs in one basket by bano · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it would be more prudent to have redundancy in this system.
    Maybe one in the arctic, one in antarctic, one in maybe the Sahara or Gobi, or maybe under a mountain somewhere.
    Thus ruling out some sort of catastrophy taking out the entire seed vault.
    You would also rule out one country being in charge of the system.

    1. Re:All the worlds eggs in one basket by amliebsch · · Score: 3, Funny
      or maybe under a mountain somewhere.

      I know of the perfect place! A huge, secure facility bored into a mountain that is designed to hold its contents unperturbed for extremely long periods of time. It's under a mountain, like you say...Yucca Mountain, I think it's called...

      --
      If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
    2. Re:All the worlds eggs in one basket by sumdumass · · Score: 2, Interesting

      catastrophy? just wait until some rebels take control of the vault and then wipe all the other crop seeds out with some bioterrorism. Then everyone will have to pay them to replant or starve.

      Redundancy might be a must.,

    3. Re:All the worlds eggs in one basket by Misagon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Seed banks are nothing new. There have been seed banks in every western country for at least a hundred years, and there still are, so there is a lot of redundancy right there.
      This seed bank is a little bit bigger, that's the only difference.

      Seed banks need to replenish their stocks every few years by planting, because seeds will eventually degenerate even when stored in sub-zero temperatures.

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
  10. hey man, ========~~~ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    don't forget the weed, man.

  11. just make sure you get the right ones by magwm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hope for them that the seeds stored are not like those nice monsanto F1 hybrids that freak out (become sterile) after one generation.. wouldn't do mucht to restore much on a global scale..

    Actually, it would be wiser to hibernate some of the more 'weedlike' or 'wild' crops, those that are not yet GM'ed to the final product, so that a fast start can be made to produce lots of initial raw material. (the 'wilder' the plant, the faster it multiplies, mostly.. and the offspring can be crossed with many a cultivated type of crop)

    Then, i have some very interesting seed of my own here, not exactly plantlike but it does conserve well frozen.. just in case there happens to be a male-only extinction...

  12. Noah's Ark by johansalk · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://i5.tinypic.com/14x12ty.jpg

  13. Global Warming? by dpaton.net · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Even if all cooling systems failed, explained Mr Riis-Johansen, the temperature in the frozen mountain would never rise above freezing due to the permafrost on the mountainside."

    Hmm..their backup/failsafe cooling system is permafrost. Cue the global warming inducted failure discussion.

    /flamesuit on

    --
    This is not a sig. this is a duck. quack.
  14. Re:after considering all the facts by giorgiofr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    do you also trust common, curable diseases (natural selection) killing your children over medication (a profit driven corporation) saving them? oh i am sorry that would be a corpEration and those are quite vicious beasts all right.

    --
    Global warming is a cube.
  15. Not sure about this plan... by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 3, Funny

    Post-apocalyptic Human 1: So the seeds are buried somewhere round here
    Post-apocalyptic Human 2: But where exactly?
    Post-apocalyptic Human 1: Well I have the GPS coordinates here but they're a bit useless seeing as the GPS satellites were first to go in the War
    Post-apocalyptic Human 2: So how are we going to find them?
    Post-apocalyptic Human 1: Well I have a picture of the site.
    Post-apocalyptic Human 2: Cool, what does it look like?
    Post-apocalyptic Human 1: Well it's a patch of white snow surrounded by lots of white snow.
    Post-apocalyptic Human 2: Don't you have a map or something?
    Post-apocalyptic Human 1: Yeah, I can see exactly where it is relative to a bunch of features...
    Post-apocalyptic Human 2: Cool!
    Post-apocalyptic Human 1: ...but those features appear to be buried under a hundred feet of snow and we no longer have the technology to map the land that far down.
    Post-apocalyptic Human 2: So what are we going to do?
    Post-apocalyptic Human 1: Screw it! Seeds are just hippie food anyway.

    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  16. those exist.... by zogger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ..many people now maintain their own long term "sealed in a can" seed storage, myself included. I always keep quite a bit of various garden seed packed away, a lot of them are in number #10 enameled cans just for this exact purpose like in the article.

        Google for "heirloom seens, long term storage", you can find companies that sell seeds packed into cans for long shelf life. You can do it yourself too, it's not that hard to make sealed containers with like CO2 flooded in there, etc. It's a common technique in the survival/preparedness communities.

    1. Re:those exist.... by Magada · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Medieval (and earlier) people used covered-up holes in the ground (usually clay) to store their cereal. Many of these were found to have charred sides (but not bottom, which was covered in largish rocks) and bits of partly-burnt hay were found on occasion. An archeological mistery, but perhaps what these people did was to "pad" the walls of their pit with smallish amounts of hay, fill it, set the hay on fire and finally cover the lot to extinguish the fire. It is my educated guess that the hay would burn quicky and go out quickly, before being able to make a significant amount of "popcorn". Low-tech CO2-flooded seed storage, anybody?

      Ah. Where's an experimental archeologist when you need one?

      --
      Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
  17. Who exactly is going to use this? by Zadaz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If there's a "global catastrophe" big enough to wipe out a significant portion of plant species on the planet, wouldn't either:

    A) Human be pretty freaking dead also?

    B) If there were survivors, wouldn't they starve to death by the time they: 1) Went to the north pole and back, 2) found arable land to plant these seeds in the middle of a worldwide catastrophe, 3) Raised a successful crop?

    Besides, what do zombies need with seeds? They eat brains.

  18. Re:after considering all the facts by shaitand · · Score: 2, Funny

    YES. This is exactly why I support raising domesticated sex slave females. Selective breeding will insure that they are extremely successful from an evolutionary standpoint.