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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."'"

10 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. 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"

  4. 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
  5. 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?

  6. 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
  7. 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.