Doomsday "seed bank" upgraded as Arctic faces climate change threat
Designed to withstand a nuclear missile hit, the world's biggest seed vault, nestled deep inside an Arctic mountain, is undergoing a makeover as rising temperatures melt the permafrost meant to protect it. Dubbed the "Noah's Ark" of food-crops, Global Seed Vault is buried inside a former coal-mine on Svalbard, a remote Arctic island in a Norwegian archipelago 1,000km from the North Pole. Here's more.
What exactly is Global Seed Vault?
Opened in 2008, the Global Seed Vault plays a key role in preserving the world's genetic diversity: it is home to more than a million varieties of seeds, offering a safety net in case of natural catastrophe, war, climate change, disease or manmade disasters.
Permafrost meant to maintain vault's temperature melted two years ago
Warmer temperatures disrupted the environment around the seed bank lately. In an unexpected development, the permafrost, meant to help keep the temperature inside the vault at a constant -18 Celsius (-0.4 Fahrenheit), melted in 2016. "The summer season was (warmer) than expected. We had water intrusions in the (access) tunnel that could be related to climate change," Asmund Asdal, one of the vault's coordinators.
Arctic's heating up twice faster than rest of the world
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, scientific studies show. And while Europe is at the moment experiencing a subzero cold spell, the North Pole has recently registered above-zero temperatures, which is 30 degrees higher than normal. Also, scientists say that warm spells like this are occurring with increasing frequency in the Arctic.
Norway to contribute $12.5mn to seed bank
Meanwhile, Norway has recently announced that it would contribute 100 million Kroner ($12.5 million) to improve the repository in a bid to protect the precious seeds. "We want to be sure that the seed vault will be cold throughout the whole year, even if the temperature continues to increase in Svalbard," said Norway's Agriculture Minister Jon Georg Dale.
Three cold chambers each filled with various seeds
To access the heart of the vault, where seeds are stored, authorized visitors must first pass through heavy-doors and a concrete, 120-meter tunnel, giving the chilling impression of delving into an Arctic abyss. The tunnel leads to three cold chambers protected by locked gates. Seeds from all over the world are stored in sealed plastic-boxes labeled with the country of origin and the variety.
Entrance illuminated with colorful prism made of mirrors, metal bits
Outside, nothing betrays the presence of the storage site so vital to humanity, apart from a monumental entrance: the narrow cement-and-steel rectangular portal-juts out of the snow-covered mountainside, illuminated with artwork made of mirrors and metal bits that create a colorful prism visible for miles around. On the mountain, workers' cabins dot the slope amid construction-cranes and machinery, soiling the otherwise pristine white landscape.
Renovations to shore up seed bank underway
Renovations to shore up the fortress are already under way. The improvements will enable it to "handle the climate for the next decades", said Norwegian Minister Dale. The access tunnel will be reinforced, and a cabin will be built near the site to house the technical materials that can generate heat -- to prevent a recurrence of melting permafrost.
Once frozen fjord's swirling waters are worrying
At the foot of the mountain, the fjord's swirling waters are a worrying indication of the state of the climate, according to Marie Haga of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, one of the seed vault's three partners alongside Nordic gene bank NordGen and the Norwegian government. "When I came after 1985, the fjord was completely frozen," she recalled.
