The "doomsday seed vault"

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a wee bit edgy when sci-fi plotlines become news?

A doomsday seed vault on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Ocean opened Tuesday, creating a bank of more than 100 million seeds representing every major food crop on Earth.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is meant to be a Noah's Ark for plant genetics. At 4 degrees below 0 F, it will preserve the thousands of regional and local crop varieties farmers worldwide have bred for thousands of years.

Were war, disease, plague or global warming to wipe out any one species, it could be replenished from the seeds stored deep in the permafrost of the mountain vault.

"Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in comments relayed by a spokesman.

Numerous seed repositories exist worldwide, but the Svalbard vault is the most comprehensive.

I guess that's a good thing to have, as long as someone remembers it's there in the event it's needed. But I'd prefer to live in a world where this sort of contingency is not seen as needed. Oh, well.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 03, 2008 to Around the world