Frozen Doomsday Vault Open for Business
The Svalbard global seed vault. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Norway finally opened the frozen doomsday vault this past Tuesday. The vault, located 620 miles from the North Pole, will store millions of seeds in order to safeguard the world's food crops in case of wars or natural disaster.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the vault an "insurance policy" and added his own biblical comparison: "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations."
The vault, which cost 9.1 million to build, is designed to house 4.5 million crop seeds from all over the world and is designed to withstand earthquakes, nuclear strikes and global warming, according to the AP article posted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The interior design of the vault. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
The vault will run like a bank box, Norway owns the bank, but countries depositing seeds own them and can use them free of charge.
The temperature inside the vault is kept at -0.4 degrees F., which should allow the seeds to last 1000 years or more.
I would say this is certainly money well spent and no doubt one of the best insurance policies that I have seen.
