As You Sow, So Shall You Reap
February 8, 2007 8:46 PM   Subscribe

Norway unveils "Doomsday Vault" design. The Svalbard International Seed Vault, administered by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophies.
posted by amyms (34 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
there was an article about this in the second issue of Good Magazine (which I highly recommend).
posted by pruner at 8:50 PM on February 8, 2007


Thanks for that additional link, pruner :)
posted by amyms at 8:56 PM on February 8, 2007


Wow, cool.
posted by BeerFilter at 8:58 PM on February 8, 2007


Thank you amyms
posted by infini at 9:09 PM on February 8, 2007


Unfortunately, none of the seeds will be able to grow in our future climate.
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:14 PM on February 8, 2007 [2 favorites]


you're welcome, amyms. thanks for the post.
posted by pruner at 9:20 PM on February 8, 2007


Unfortunately, none ...

but even an attempt at foresight outweighs perfect hindsight.
posted by sarcasman at 9:24 PM on February 8, 2007


"I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor."

We cannot allow a Doomsday Vault Gap!

Of course, "Vault" sounds a little more Fallout than Strangelove.
posted by kid ichorous at 9:26 PM on February 8, 2007


This is not really a double post (maybe), but it's not our first post about this particular vault, either.
posted by grobstein at 9:28 PM on February 8, 2007


Will there be a 10:1 female-to-male ratio?
posted by pruner at 9:31 PM on February 8, 2007


Thanks for pointing that out, grobstein... I wasn't aware of it... I wonder why blahblahblah didn't add any tags to his/her post?... I could have added it to this one as a "previously" link.
posted by amyms at 9:36 PM on February 8, 2007


This is something out of a sci-fi novel. Sometime in the future when humans have enslaved themselves to machines and mood controlling drugs and living underground there will be talk of the legend of the Doomsday Vault and one brave man...
posted by Skygazer at 9:47 PM on February 8, 2007


Anyhow, I hope it's never needed but leave it to the Norwegians to be so forward looking.
posted by Skygazer at 9:49 PM on February 8, 2007


kid ichorous - We cannot allow a Doomsday Vault Gap!

Technically speaking, since the Doomsday Vault is being built in a (sub-permafrost) mountainside, it's a mountainside gap that we cannot allow!
posted by pruner at 9:54 PM on February 8, 2007


The joke's on them. By the time anybody needs to use these seeds the world will be far too stuffed to grow anything. Ha ha ha. erm. hey.
posted by pompomtom at 9:57 PM on February 8, 2007


leave it to the Norwegians to be so forward looking

Are they also progressive enough to include currently out-of-favour plants like opium poppies, marijuana, coca, khat & a large range of other plant allies?

Becoz, y'know, I can imagine certain other countries banning even the preservation of their seeds.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:00 PM on February 8, 2007 [3 favorites]


Wasn't this supposed to be guarded by polar bears?
posted by IronLizard at 10:01 PM on February 8, 2007


Wasn't this supposed to be guarded by polar bears?

The polar bears were deemed unreliable as guards, since they all perished when the polar ice caps melted.
posted by amyms at 10:11 PM on February 8, 2007


No matter. The triffids that replaced them are doing a fine job.
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:15 PM on February 8, 2007


The triffids that replaced them are doing a fine job.

These things?... Yikes! I hope they aren't being preserved in the vault.
posted by amyms at 10:22 PM on February 8, 2007


Wasn't this supposed to be guarded by polar bears?

Yes, with lasers.
posted by scheptech at 10:46 PM on February 8, 2007


We better hurry up and get building. The first 12 vaults will all fail.

More seriously, I wonder if they're using a reactor for the power? They've been astonishingly quiet about how the manmade cooling systems are supposed to work and last such a long time. (They mention that the permafrost is backup cooling.)

If they are using a reactor, perhaps they're not mentioning it from fear that it might be stolen?
posted by Malor at 11:22 PM on February 8, 2007


Svalbard has electric power and whatnot. It's not an unpopulated wasteland, it has some 2500 inhabitants, supporting a mining and fishing industry, as well as some tourism (I haven't been, although I'm Norwegian, but I'm told it's an amazing place). I'm sure the Norwegian state is able to run some cables up to this place.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:39 PM on February 8, 2007


We cannot allow a Doomsday Vault Gap!

Not only that, but their vault must surely be added to our tactical nuclear target list to prevent them from having an unfair strategic advantage in the dark ages.

Seriously, let's show some pride and implement sustainable growth in our level of insanity in this new millennium!
posted by fairmettle at 2:14 AM on February 9, 2007


This is really fascinating to think about. Because of its location, should the vault be forgotten or abandoned in the future, it is somewhat likely that it would be buried under glaciers during the next ice age. In this fashion it could be completely inaccesible for tens of thousands of years.
Just imagine The difference in the worlds biomass when that age comes to an end, and what would happen if the vault where broken open. A lot of different avenues of thought.
posted by Catfry at 3:17 AM on February 9, 2007


Cool! So after a full-out balls-to-the-wall global nuclear exchange, we'll be able to travel to somewhere way north of Norway and ... uh wait.
Ok, after said war and just about all of us are dead, our leaders will emerge from their bunkers and travel to... um. Maybe not.
Ok. War. The mutant penguins with hands will be able to reseed the earth. Hmm.

I'm just making fun - it does seem like an admirable effort, though perhaps slightly odd and desperate/pointless, like packing the silverware on the Titanic.
posted by Zack_Replica at 5:39 AM on February 9, 2007


I think it is a bit of a red herring to think of it that way. It isn't intended as a means to help in the event of something happening to humanity. It is there as a safeguard against extinction of the plant species contained in the vault.

A current event that this plan could have helped divert is the problems facing us now with respect to the banana. As I understand it, the commercial strain of banana used today is not resistant to a lot of problematic outside influences, and there are huge problems keeping the production high and profitable into the future. Because of the extinction of lesser, but more resistant strains , the endeavour to try to find a better banana via gene alterations is in dire straits.

(If someone knows the correct state of affairs please let me know. I just thought I had the gist of it).
posted by Catfry at 7:51 AM on February 9, 2007


Their artist's rendering omitted something important that I have fixed.
posted by nathancaswell at 8:09 AM on February 9, 2007


Monsanto lawsuit in 3...2...

I’m wondering if they’ll be wanting some *Formula Smed* (blatently stolen from Colbert).

Hmmm....Colbert lawsuit in 3...2..
posted by Smedleyman at 8:52 AM on February 9, 2007


There had better be some fuckin ganj in there, or mad max is gonna make somebody pay.
posted by tehloki at 9:05 AM on February 9, 2007


Wasn't this supposed to be guarded by polar bears?

Yes, with fire hurlers and sky armor.
posted by Durhey at 11:04 AM on February 9, 2007


nathancaswell, I knew it was missing something... but now it's perfect.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:57 PM on February 9, 2007


Of course, since it's Norwegians doing it, we're going to open that sucker in 200 years and find bags of sunflower seeds from the 7-11.

(I keed, I keed. My family is Swedish, making fun of the Norwegians is the Swedish national pastime.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 2:03 AM on February 10, 2007


This post has gone Crazy Eddie.

(anybody?)
posted by LordSludge at 8:15 PM on February 11, 2007


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