The Svalbard vault, on the other hand, is considered a more secure site. Many of the world's 1,700 seed banks are vulnerable to war, natural disasters or even seemingly mundane problems, such as broken-down cooling systems. "It confirms the important role of the seed vault as a worldwide insurance for food supply for future generations and an ever-growing population." "It is simply impressive that 1 million seed samples from all over the world have now found their way to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault," said Norwegian Minister of Agriculture and Food Jon Georg Dale.
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Read more: How to Backup Life on Earth Ahead of the ApocalypseĪmong the new seeds delivered to the vault on Monday were samples of the Estonian onion potato, Bambara groundnuts and Hunter barley, which is used to make Irish beer. In the event that one, or more, crop varieties is wiped out, a seed can be taken from the vault to help replace it, safeguarding the world's food supply and maintaining crop diversity. National and international seed banks from around the world send backup samples of their unique crops to be kept in cold storage inside the Norwegian government-run facility-which is carved into a mountainside on the remote Svalbard archipelago, halfway between Norway and the North Pole. The vault-which also celebrated its 10th anniversary on the day the milestone was reached-was designed to protect the world's crops from local and global disasters, such as nuclear war or catastrophic climate change. The drainage ditches being built too will move meltwater away from the entrance of the tunnel instead of toward it.Ī new entrance situated in a less sensitive location may also be useful in the future.Īschim finds concrete solutions necessary, calling it a “big responsibility” to optimally maintain the vault for the world’s benefit.On Monday, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway-dubbed the Doomsday Vault-accepted a delivery of 76,000 new seed samples, surpassing its 1 million mark. The government is now adjusting to high temperatures striking in the region, where officials are eliminating electrical equipment from the access tunnel to remove any more potential heat source. The New Normal: High Temperatures In The Winter Currently, they are frozen by permafrost and artificially by being kept at -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit inside foil packages in sealed boxes. The seeds are safely stored 394 feet deep in the mountain. "The question is whether this is just happening now, or will it escalate?" the government official told The Guardian. "It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would experience extreme weather like that," said Hege Njaa Aschim, communications director of Statsbygg, the Norwegian government’s office that oversees construction and property affairs. In the winter, heat came knocking at the seed vault’s door, with meltwater flooding the entrance and refreezing, creating an ice rink-like environment inside the front door. In a 2014 study, for instance, the region was seen to respond to global warming faster than other places on Earth, heating up at double the rate of the rest of the globe. Unusually high temperatures hitting the Arctic are melting permafrost as well as inhibiting the growth of sea ice. Here Comes Climate ChangeĬlimate change, however, isn’t exactly friendly to this facility despite its fail-safe measures.
Crop Trust even dubbed the facility a “fail-safe” one for storage. The surrounding rock and year-round permafrost were designed to keep the seeds chilled even if there is no longer any power channeled into the facility.
The vault’s remote location, inside a mountain on a Norwegian archipelago, is intended to be one of its features. The Seed Vault, it went further, is and will continue being “the safest backup of crop diversity.” “The Royal Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Statsbygg, Norway, is taking appropriate measures to ensure the protection of the Seed Vault and improve the construction to prevent future incidents,” the statement read. In a May 21 statement, vault funder and support organization Crop Trust announced that it will be constructing new drainage ditches along with waterproof walls and other mechanisms to shield the vault’s contents from flooding.
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