The Doomsday Seeds

The Doomsday Seeds

In the event of a global calamity, scientists in Norway are ensuring that humanity can begin anew by protecting the planet’s crop biodiversity.

Locked away in an underground vault on the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard close to the Arctic Circle, 900,000 seed samples are stored at a constant zero degrees Fahrenheit. Doors to the secluded facility are only opened twice a year for deposits.

While the conservatory isn’t the world’s first, researchers have bolstered stocks in the Arctic in recent years after a smaller seed repository in Syria was damaged during that nation’s brutal civil war: The Svalbard vault recently received a $13 million upgrade in light of escalating conflicts and global climate change, USA Today reported.

The funds will be used for the “construction of a new, concrete-built access tunnel, as well as a service building to house emergency power and refrigerating units and other electrical equipment,” according to Norway’s Ministry of Agriculture.

Recently, the vault added more than 70,000 new crops to its stocks, including unusual varieties like the Estonian onion potato, unique varieties of rice and of course, barley – to brew Irish beer.