tonysimmons ([info]tonysimmons) wrote,
@ 2006-01-11 15:58:00
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Current mood:pessimistic
Current music:REM: It's the End of the World as We Know It (& I Feel Fine)

Seeds for after the End of the World

(Stolen from Warren Ellis.com --- combined with the Red Rain entry, and I'm getting the beginnings of a story idea.)

Norway Builds Grim Meathook Ark

Filed under: — warrenellis @ 8:02 pm

Norway is to build a “doomsday vault” in a mountain close to the North Pole that will house a vast seed bank to ensure food supplies in the event of catastrophic climate change, nuclear war or rising sea levels.

Built with Fort Knox-type security, the three-million-dollar vault will be designed to hold around two million seeds representing all known varieties of the world’s crops. They are the precious food plants that have emerged from 10,000 years of selection by farmers.

The facility “would essentially be built to last forever,” according to a feasibility study.

It will be built deep in permafrost in the side of a sandstone mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) from the North Pole. With walls of one-metre- (3.25-feet-) thick concrete, the seed bank will be protected behind two airlocks and high-security blast-proof doors.

The seed bank is expected to be created next year.


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The Norwegians are Very Optimistic, or very Cheap
(Anonymous)
2006-01-28 05:36 pm UTC (link)
Why go by half (or really, much smaller) measures?
Norway could actually bury their entire country under concrete, maybe with a sliding skylight for now, if they really want to be on the safe side.
Although I understand continued confinement and claustrophobia can make survivors of nuclear war go insane enough to dash out into the irradiated landscape without concern for their health.

My first thought was though the adaptation of the seeds that would take place, if they were actually in the environment, that might be necessary to make them suitable for the survivors who may have mutated or need to adapt in the new environment. By protecting them from the environment, perhaps the Norwegians are stifling the creative and life-sustaining value of the seeds.

Now I sound pessimistic.

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