I've Been Thunderstruck

There was a very interesting article today at MSNBC.com about The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. I did some further research on the subject at wikipedia, and came across this reference article.

The wikipedia article has this to say about the mission of the seed vault:

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault’s mission is to provide a safety net against accidental loss of diversity in traditional genebanks. While the popular press has emphasized its possible utility in the event of a major regional or global catastrophe, it will certainly be more frequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts and natural disasters. Such events occur with some regularity. In recent years, some national genebanks have also been destroyed by war and civil strife. There are some 1,400 crop diversity collections around the world, but many are in politically unstable or environmentally threatened nations.

The MSNBC.com article goes on to further say:

The vault, which Norway built at a cost of about 50 million kroner (US$9.1 million, euro6.25 million), has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples from around the globe, shielding them from climate change, wars, natural disasters and other threats.

The frozen mountain has been chilled further by giant air conditioning units to bring the temperature down to -18 Celsius (-0.4 Fahrenheit). Many seeds could last 1,000 years at that temperature, Fowler said.

The vault is designed to withstand earthquakes — successfully tested by a 6.2-magnitude earthquake at Svalbard last week — and even a direct nuclear strike, said construction leader Magnus Bredeli-Tveiten.

Fowler added that even 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.”

I had no idea that something like this existed. Never before had I given thought to the fact that it might be a wise thing to keep backups of the seeds that create the crops our world depends on for food, clothing, and a number of other things. After all, if something catastrophic happened to the world, and the outside environment was unsuitable for growing anything at all, that would be the end of our ability to sustain ourselves with crops…never mind the impossibility of delivering roses to your loved on on Valentine’s Day! But, with over 1400 seed vaults dotting the world, I suspect our chances at being sustainable after a horrible earth event are greatly increased. Kudos to those with the foresight to come up with a contingency plan like this!

Makes you wonder what other things we have buried underground.