Climate change, it is feared, could result in additional, similar problems for the Norwegian seed repository. The CLV is intended as a “backup” for Norway’s SGSV, which flooded after uncharacteristically high temperatures melted the island’s ice.

India has great plans for the future of the CLV, which is intended “to rival Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway, as well as Fort Collins, Colorado’s National Center for Genetic Resources,” the latter of which holds “600,000 seed packets.” However, India must first equip the vault with a cooling system for use during the weeks that temperatures warm to -4 degrees. The seeds stored in the Chang La Vault (CLV) are genetically modified to ensure “that grains and vegetables can reproduce at high altitudes, in salty water, less water, and high temperatures.” The vault’s seeds are resistant “to temperature, pests, and humidity” and will allow generations to come to enjoy a variety of produce, including “apricots, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, radishes, tomatoes, barley, rice and wheat,” since such seeds have extremely long lifetimes-413 years for onion seeds, 1,100 years for rice seeds, 1,600 years for wheat seeds, 2,000 years for barley seeds, and an astonishing 9,000 years for pea seeds. Despite its distant and inhospitable location, the high desert site is perfect for its mission, the storage of 10,000 seeds and 200 plant species, “preserved in permafrost at -18 degrees Centigrade,” which, in the event of a Doomsday catastrophe, would be used to replenish crops. Neither earthquakes nor floods are threats. Temperatures are below zero, and humidity is almost non-existent. It is situated atop a frozen mountain in the Himalayas, on a treacherous road that traverses elevations as high as 5,360 meters (17,688 feet). Three hours from the nearest town, Leh, Chang La is difficult to reach. “These resources stand between us and catastrophic starvation on a scale we cannot imagine,” Fowler declares. That’s why the SGSV is needed and why Norway paid the $9 million in construction costs, Bill Gates paid the costs of shipping the 1.5 billion seeds, and almost every nation has contributed seeds. The downside is the family variety goes extinct.”Īny number of catastrophes, natural, technological, or otherwise, including “equipment failure or mismanagement,” can destroy a crop, Fowler says, and “once that crop is lost,” it is gone forever, and, with it, its resistance to disease or pests would disappear forever as well. But today, farmers are planting mass-produced industrial seeds. Seeds used to be passed down through families. Scientist Cary Fowler offers an example: of the 7,100 varieties of apples that existed in the 19th century, only 300 remain “the extinction rate for apple varieties in the United States is about 86 percent.” There’s a reason that “extinction exists in all crops. The SGSV is also a hedge against extinction, which isn’t something that may happen in the future, but is happening now.

The treasure the vault holds is too precious to risk: seeds, collected from all over the world, over a period of seventy years-1.5 billion of them, enough to reseed agriculture, should a Doomsday event occur. The vault is so cold that it will remain frozen for a quarter of a century, even if power to the refrigeration that maintains temperatures below those of the permafrost that covers the vault should fail. the sun never rises, and the moon never sets.”Ī huge, wedge-shaped entrance leads into the side of a mountain and into the Doomsday vault, which is built to last 10,000 years. The residents of Longyearbyen, the closest settlement, number just over two thousand. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV), administered by Norway, is located on icy islands, known as Svalbard, or the “cold coast.” As might be expected, this region of the world is sparsely populated. Whatever befalls us on Doomsday, survivors will have food to eat, cultural artifacts to treasure, sweet treats to enjoy, and maybe even pets to pamper.ġ0 Highly Guarded Vaults 10 Svalbard Global Seed Vault We have built vast storage vaults in the arctic and elsewhere, and scientists hope to build yet another one, underground, on the moon. Culture, beneficial bacteria, and cookies should survive, too. We’re ready, though, or as ready as we can be, at least where food supplies are concerned. Any number of catastrophic events could bring Doomsday upon us. A stray meteor on a collision course with Earth.

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