Noah's Ark for Plants - Svalbard Global Seed Vault

[NancyNGA]

Deep inside a mountain on a remote island, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

"The Global Seed Vault opened in 2008 as a “backstop” for seed banks around the world, whose own archives of their agricultural heritage might be threatened by disaster. Isolated by miles of sea and acres of forbidding ice from the specter of earthquakes, heat waves and human menace, the vault and its contents will last 1,000 years. It’s a sort of Noah’s Ark for plants, built to withstand the storms (war, crop-disease, climate change, asteroid impact) that might wipe a species from the rest of the planet."

A brief look inside the vault holding seeds for our doomsday food supply.

 

[NancyNGA]

The conflict in Syria has left scientists at an important gene bank in Aleppo -- where new strains of drought- and heat-resistant wheat have been developed over time -- unable to continue their work in recent years. Now, with no sign of conditions in Syria improving, scientists have begun recovering their critical inventory of seeds (from Svalbard), sourced from around the Fertile Crescent and beyond..... The seeds are being planted at new facilities in Lebanon and Morocco, allowing scientists to resume the important research they've been doing for decades.... More here.

(BTW, there are already numerous conspiracy theories and videos going viral on the internet about why this withdrawal was REALLY made. What can I say? )

 

[Jackie22]

...this is very interesting, its good to know that this type of research is happening. thanks for posting.

 

[Shalimar]

Marvelous.

 

[NancyNGA]

I guess this was on Sixty Minutes in 2011, in a little more depth, so probably most of you saw it. It was new to me.