Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Spitsberger Island
Pat Flanagan
The entrance to the shaft which leads to the 'doomsday' seed vault
Beneath the snow and ice of the Arctic Circle , on a small island, lies a vault which holds a horde so precious it could save the human race from EXTINCTION .
Known as the 'Doomsday Vault', it contains a vast quantity of SEEDS which would be needed should the earth suffer a catastrophe such as a nuclear war or a huge asteroid strike .
Located on the island of Spitsbergen, off Norway’s northern coast, the vault provides the back-up to a network of seed banks around the world, the Irish Mirror reports .
Even Ireland has placed some of its precious seeds in the little-known facility including 32 varieties of potato - so even if the world is destroyed the Irish spud will survive.
But the vault is key to the survival of humans in the event of any disaster which would leave people exposed to contaminated, diseased or scarce food.
Read more : Doomsday Clock to stay at 3 minutes to midnight as experts warn global catastrophe remains imminent
Most of the countries, including Ireland, has some form of gene bank which keep copies and samples of crops in case of a catastrophe, whether it be through flood, drought, accidents or war.
But secure inside a mountain 1,300 kilometres from the North Pole the Svalbard Global Seed Vault keeps copies of those samples keeping safe what amounts to 13,000 years of agricultural history.
Vault executive director Marie Haga said: “The vault symbolises how we can create a long term, sustainable and positive solution to feed the world forever.
“The issue of hunger is global and increasingly urgent.
“If we continue as we are food production will be reduced and food prices will rise.
“Crop diversity is essential if we are to provide more food, more nutritious food and more affordable food for the poor.”
So even if the world is destroyed the Irish spud will survive as there are 32 varieties of potatoes from Ireland in the vault along with hundreds of other vital crops from this country.
It has already proved its worth as the Philippines national seed bank was damaged by flooding and later destroyed by fire and secure stores of seeds in Afghanistan and Iraq have been lost completely in the midst of war.
The Syrian Civil War also caused another seed bank, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, to move its headquarters from Aleppo to Beirut.
The seed vault is located in an abandoned coal mine and the frozen seeds are stored at -18°c and, even if the equipment fails, they will never be exposed to a temperature of more than -3°c on the frozen sandstone mountain.
It is estimated that there are 865,000 different samples and the main focus is on corn, wheat, rice and legumes. There’s enough room to store 2.5 billion.
It is also heavily guarded and operates like a top secret deposit box scheme.
The vault is only opened three times a year and a limited number of people are allowed inside.
Not anyone is allowed in because only the depositing country has access to its contribution - to stop bio-tech spying.
The vault is operated by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, almost every country in the world has made deposits, but China and Japan have yet to sign up and India is also reluctant to contribute.
Ireland has enthusiastically backed the project and contributes funding to the Trust.
Dubbed the doomsday vault it was set up in 2008 and could one day help feed an exploding population which is set to reach 11 billion by 2100.
Who would have thought a tiny seed buried deep in a cold mine sunk into a frozen mountain inside the Arctic Circle could hold the key to the future of humanity?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/see-inside-doomsday-vault-holds-7625415
