The fortifiedSvalbard Global Seed Vault , designed to protect the world ’s seeds from cataclysm and environmental devastation , has beenflooded . The perpetrator ? Climate alteration .
" It is a fail - secure seed computer storage facility , built to stand up the examination of clock time – and the challenge of natural or man - made disasters,“readsthe site by Crop Trust , the organisation task with protecting global crop diversity .
However , the " heavy " fortress easy succumbed to the forces of nature , as track record heat hit the area . This led to higher - than - usual melting and heavy rain , alternatively of snow .
Buried deep inside a sandstone mountain in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago , meltwater gush into the entrance and later on froze . Thankfully , no seeds were lose and the water ice has since been hack out . However , the issue has raised concern among the residential district tasked with protect the seed bank , which is conjecture to be a lifeline in sheath of an environmental emergency .
" It was not in our programme to opine that the permafrost would not be there and that it would receive extreme conditions like that , " Hege Njaa Aschim , from the Norse government that owns the bank vault , toldThe Guardian . “It was supposed to [ manoeuvre ] without the help of humans , but now we are watch the seed overleap 24 minute a day . "
At the goal of last year in Spitsbergen , average temperatures warm by 7 ° C ( 11 ° atomic number 9 ) above normal . With the mood quickly vary and the permafrost melting , vault managers must now retrieve a way to protect the earthly concern ’s largest assemblage of cum .
This includes waterproofing the burrow into the mountain and comprehend trenches in parliamentary law to divert the meltwater . They have also installed heart into the seeded player bank in case the past times repeats itself . Right now , they are doing all they can to protect the vault .
" This is supposed to last for eternity , " said Åsmund Asdal at the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre , which operates the seed bank vault , to The Guardian .
[ H / T : The Guardian ]
