“The large scope of today’s seed deposit reflects worldwide concern about the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on food production.” Stefan Schmitz, who manages the reserve as head of the Crop Trust, said: “As the pace of climate change and biodiversity loss increases, there is new urgency surrounding efforts to save food crops at risk of extinction.
#Norway adds seeds to its doomsday vault upgrade#
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV), buried deep in a mountainside on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle, is designed to hold a huge variety of plant seed samples as back-up stock in case of a global catastrophe.Īnd with maintenance under way to prevent flooding, as climate change fuels the melting of permafrost around the vault, scientists have used the upgrade as an excuse to add another 60,000 crop varieties from across the world.
#Norway adds seeds to its doomsday vault full#
Norway has received praise from around the world for building the seed bank.įAO Director-General Jacques Diouf on Monday called it "one of the most innovative and impressive acts in the service of humanity.An Arctic bunker full of seeds dubbed the “doomsday vault” is set to receive thousands of additional samples this week, pushing the total number of seeds it holds to over 1 million. There are an estimated 3,000 polar bears on the islands. "My job is to keep away people who aren't supposed to be here, and guard against polar bears," said seed vault worker Jimmy Olsen, who was standing outside the entrance Monday with a bear rifle slung from his shoulder. The Svalbard vault is protected by armed guards, but their rifles aren't only meant to discourage uninvited humans from coming too close. You don't expect to get into a car accident, but you buy insurance anyway," he said. "It's like you get in your car in the morning and drive to the office. Fowler said the Svalbard bank was a like an insurance policy. For example, war wiped out seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one in the Philippines was flooded in the wake of a typhoon in 2006. Other seed banks are in less protected areas. The archipelago is about 300 miles north of the Norwegian mainland. "So much of the value of Svalbard is that it is so far away from the dangers" that affect many other parts of the globe, Fowler said. He expected the vault's life span to rival that of Egypt's ancient pyramids. Each vault can hold 1.5 million sample packages of all types of crop seeds, from carrots to wheat.Ĭonstruction leader Magnus Bredeli-Tveiten said the vault is designed to withstand earthquakes - successfully tested by a 6.2-magnitude temblor off Svalbard last week - and even a direct nuclear strike.Įven if power systems failed, the permafrost around the vault would help keep the seeds "cold for 200 years even in the worst case climate scenario," said Fowler. The seeds are packed in silvery foil containers - as many as 500 in each sample - and placed on blue and orange metal shelves inside the vaults.
The first 75 boxes will be carried into the vault by guests as part of the opening ceremony.
tons) of seed have already arrived at Svalbard from 20 seed banks around the world, Norwegian Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen said at a seminar Monday. The first 600 boxes with 11 tons (12 U.S. Inside the concrete entrance, decorated for the opening with an ice sculpture of a polar bear, a roughly 400-foot tunnel with steel and concrete leads to three separate 32-by-88-foot chambers where the seeds will be stored.
Giant air conditioning units have chilled the vault to -18 Celsius (-0.4 F), a temperature at which experts say many seeds could last for 1,000 years.
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