Norway Building Doomsday Gene Bank

[Lemur]

I was curious of what the Org would think of this: (http://www.physorg.com/news9794.htmlJan%2012)

'Doomsday vault' to house world's seeds

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, New Scientist says.

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, the British weekly says in its next issue, out on Saturday.

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 facility will not be permanently manned but "the mountains are patrolled by polar bears," the report quotes Cary Fowler, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, an organisation that is promoting the project, as saying.

To be preserved, the seeds must be kept below freezing point.

Operators plan to replace the air inside the vault once a year at winter-time, but even if for some reason this becomes impossible, the permafrost will still keep the seeds viable.

The thick walls, airlocks and doors mean that even if global warming accelerates badly, it would take many decades for hotter air to reach the seeds.

"This will be the world's most secure gene bank by some orders of magnitude," said Fowler. "But its seeds will only be used when all other samples have gone for some reason. It is a fail-safe depository, rather than a conventional seed bank."

The proposal is backed by Norway, which sketched a similar project back in the 1980s that was thwarted at the time by the Soviet Union's access to Spitsbergen.

The seed bank is expected to be created next year.

[Reenk Roink]

:wall:

I roll my eyes at our "planning" and "sophistication" :rolleyes2:

Couldn't we find a way how to feed the hungry people right now...?

:stupido2:

[Lemur]

I don't think this is one of those situations where Norway was choosing between feeding the hungry and pie-in-the-sky. We're not talking about huge sums by gov't standards. Not sure that the financial angle is the way to attack this ...

[LordElrond]

"the mountains are patrolled by polar bears,"

Lol. Good thing to know that security is tight as ever. ~:cheers:

[Beirut]

I've been placed on-call by their center as an emergency breeder in case we need to repopulate as well.

The money isn't great but the benefits are outrageous. ~:smoking:

[Reenk Roink]

I don't think this is one of those situations where Norway was choosing between feeding the hungry and pie-in-the-sky. We're not talking about huge sums by gov't standards. Not sure that the financial angle is the way to attack this ...

I also attack it due to it's farfetched-ness :sweatdrop:.

Besides, every penny counts, especially to the homeless.

[Papewaio]

I've been placed on-call by their center as an emergency breeder in case we need to repopulate as well.

The money isn't great but the benefits are outrageous. ~:smoking:

Damn I knew I should have responded on the form to the question of sex: often.

So silly just to put male. :wall:

[Reenk Roink]

I've been placed on-call by their center as an emergency breeder in case we need to repopulate as well.

The money isn't great but the benefits are outrageous. ~:smoking:

Gah, I can imagine it now, a hybrid comprising of a polarbear and the worst humanity can offer :laugh4:...

J/K mate...

*avoids ban stick*

[Strike For The South]

Im scared of Norweagin death metal. you should be to

[Samurai Waki]

Why the North Pole? Isn't that the last place someone would go in the event of a nuclear attack, or a major famine due to a plague that wiped out the world food source?

[Divinus Arma]

hmm.

Lets see. In the event that everyone gets blasted by nukes or a horrific natural catastrophe, we will have:

A vault everyone will forget about (and those who knew about it are most likely dead) in the single most obscure part of the planet.

A vault that noone can get to becaue it is in the single most obscure location on the planet.

A vault noone can open because of fancy locks and frickin polar bears with laser beams on their frickin heads.


So... bob the white trash trailer park resident from the outskirts of kansas city, and one of the few survivors, will be able to do what? Uhm. Nothing.


So, 3000 years after the horrible destruction of man, when we have a 2nd renaisance, a 2nd internet, and 2 or 4 more hitlers, we can "discover" this amazing artifcact and say to our collective selves:


Ohhhh, so that's where I put the seeds to repopulate the earth. Right next to our collective car keys and the eternal missing sock.

[Paul Peru]

It seems like a better idea than some I've heard of. All previuos civilisations should have done the same thing, and thrown in their writings, cooking utensils etc. Of course we can hope that it's a waste of resources.

Btw, noone accepts that Spitsbergen is Norwegian territory, and particularly Russians and Spanish are very busy eradicating all fish in the sea up there. Of course the EU supports the Spanish pirates, and Norway doesn't have the balls to send them packing and preserve the endangered halibuts and whatnot. Probably the "First National Doomsday Gene Bank" will be similarly safe.

[Fragony]

Using Norwegian genes to prevent Doomsday? Self-defeating profecy gone horribly wrong!! Paying 40 euro for a pizza, THAT is doomsday and guess where it is happening :wall:

wait the women are pretty hot there

[Kralizec]

I think this is awesome. Right up there with the clock of the long now (https://www.discover.com/issues/nov-05/cover/).

It's similar to how I've booked a vacation to Mallorca this vacation with a couple of my friends, total cost: 600 euro per person. Then travel insurance for another 20 euro.
20 euros? Perfectly good money I could buy beer for, it's not as if 600 euro for the vacation itself isn't expensive enough!
But suppose something bad happens, ie a friend or a relative dies... Going on vacation is out of the question now...and if only I'd have spend a measly 20 euro on travel insurance I wouldn't have lost 600 euro on a now useless booking :dizzy2:

No matter how small the chance on a global catastrophe may be, this gene bank is an essential insurance policy that could benefit all of humanity and the costs are next to nothing in the scope of worldy affairs.

[Viking]

We aren`t really doing this, are we? :gah: At least nobody told me..



Btw, noone accepts that Spitsbergen is Norwegian territory, and particularly Russians and Spanish are very busy eradicating all fish in the sea up there.

Isn`t it more like that they`re not accepting that the surrounding seas are our territory?

[KukriKhan]

Didn't I once read about a treaty (I think even US & UK signed) about joint-ownership of Spitsbergen?

[Viking]

I think this is what you`re thinking of:



Svalbard Treaty


The Treaty concerning Spitsbergen of February 1920 placed the arctic islands of Spitsbergen as an overseas part of Kingdom of Norway (article I). However, as part of the compromise with the signatories, much but not all Norwegian law applies. All signatories were given equal rights to run businesses (with a view to coal mining) on the islands. Currently (2004) Norway and Russia are utilising this right.

The original signatories include Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom (including overseas dominions) and the United States. The Soviet Union signed in 1924 and Germany in 1925. There are now over 40 signatories.

Norway took over governorship in 1925 and immediately enacted a series of environmental protection measures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Treaty

Svalbard is Norwegian, but any foreign contry have equal right to do buisness as Norwegian companies have.

[Kagemusha]

If it costs only 3 million dollars i think every country should build one or more of these.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Bah....this thread put my hopes up. It read from the front page 'Norway Building Doomsday Gene...'. I was hoping the rest would read 'Norway Building Doomsday Generator'. Would have been much more interesting.

[Viking]

Bah....this thread put my hopes up. It read from the front page 'Norway Building Doomsday Gene...'. I was hoping the rest would read 'Norway Building Doomsday Generator'. Would have been much more interesting.

Yeah, but that`s hush hush.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Yeah, but that`s hush hush.

Ah, i see....well i look forward to Norway pulling itself out of the dark ages and joining the axis of evil. Tell me, did you make an alliance with the confederation of super-villains to obtain the plans and materials for this weapon? I made friends with them. Very friendly guys.

[Viking]

Ah, i see....well i look forward to Norway pulling itself out of the dark ages and joining the axis of evil. Tell me, did you make an alliance with the confederation of super-villains to obtain the plans and materials for this weapon? I made friends with them. Very friendly guys.

Oh no; it`s our work, and ours only. Apart from a couple of Sweedes, that is. And my cousin George. Oh, and Tony as well.