A Coal Mine in the Arctic

The entrance to the seed bank

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

• are you concerned about the end of the world?
• or perhaps at a less drastic level
• are you concerned about global unrest?
• well, never fear
• some of our most favorite plants will be there on the other side of whatever apocalyptic events may ensue
• joking and conspiracy aside
• there is an actual global seed vault that contains preserved seed clones for the protect against large scale seed loss in the event of regional or widespread distress
• the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located a mere 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen
• this island was chosen because it is an area that lacks any sort of tectonic activity and is in the arctic
• so the permafrost aids in preserving the seed samples
• if all cooling systems failed
• it would take several weeks before the inside of the facility (which is normally at -18°C) reached the temperature of the surrounding bedrock (about -3°C)
• the seed bank itself is an abandoned coal mine in which the Nordic Gene Bank has been storing frozen seeds since 1984
• it currently houses more than 10,000 seed samples
• from about 300 relevant crop plant species

Welcome to the inside of the bank where all the seeds are stored!

• the seeds at Svalbard are clones of others from seed banks around the world
• though it may sound like this place made as some sort of apocalypse preparation
• its main use has been to replenish other seed banks around the world that have suffered damages or specimen losses
• war, civil strife, and natural disasters are the usual reasons to call on Svalbard
• in places like Afghanistan and Iraq
• the national seed banks have been lost almost completely
• and Svalbard will be organization that helps them replinish their collections
• the Svalbard Global Seed Vault basically serves as insurance and support for the world’s 1,750 seed banks

And what an important support system it is. That abandoned, arctic coal mine is our last wall of protection against total loss of agricultural biodiversity. Preventative systems like this are necessary if we are to continue to feed our tumultuous, growing species.