'Doomsday' seed bank to be built (near Svalbard, Norway)

[gulfcoastliberal]

Norway is planning to build a "doomsday vault" inside a mountain on an Arctic island to hold a seed bank of all known varieties of the world's crops.

The Norwegian government will hollow out a cave on the ice-bound island of Spitsbergen to hold the seed bank.

It will be designed to withstand global catastrophes like nuclear war or natural disasters that would destroy the planet's sources of food.

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Permafrost will keep the vault below freezing point and the seeds will further be protected by metre-thick walls of reinforced concrete, two airlocks and high security blast-proof doors.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4605398.stm

I wonder how long the permafrost will be there - Hatrack's ice report has Svalbard as already being totally ice free. Anyone heard about this seed bank?

[jwirr]

1. No, but it certainly sounds like a good idea - right here in the US.

[Stargazer99]

2. After Monsanto gets the patent on GM seed and makes

every farmer pay through the nose for it, we are going to need a stockpile of what God gave us so people do not go hungry for lack of funds to pay those corporate bastards. You heard about Monsanto suing the Canadian farmer? Apparently, Monsanto GM seed has flown across the road and became part of the Canadian farmer's seed which had been carried down through the years by his family. The damn GM seed ruined his family seed supply and Monsanto tried to make him pay for it. This is what we are in store for if the American people don't start waking up and smelling the coffee.

[Stargazer99]

3. Praise God, some country has their head out of the sand.

Now lets see how much howling and skull duggery the corporations will try.