Vladimir Us
artist & curator
http://www.oberliht.org.md> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: SaveNoDesign
Digest, Vol 11, Issue 15> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008
12:00:05 +0100> > > Message: 2> Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:50:22 +0100> From:
"Alex Foti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> Subject: [savenodesign] arctic vault to save
world's seeds> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Arctic vault to safeguard world's
seeds> > By Fiona Harvey in Svalbard> > Published: February 26 2008 01:36 |
Last updated: February 26 2008 01:36> > The door will open on Tuesday on an
Arctic "doomsday" vault that will> safeguard seed samples from the world's most
important food crops> against possible disaster, in scenarios from drastic
climate change to> nuclear war.> > The first seeds ? of rice plants ? are to be
delivered this morning to> the Svalbard global seed vault, dug out of a
snow-covered island 800> miles (1,280km) from the North Pole. They will be kept
at 18?C below> freezing. The intention is to preserve hundreds of millions of
seeds> from varieties of nearly 100 of the world's main crops.> > "It's an
insurance policy," said Cary Fowler, executive director of> the Global Crop
Diversity Trust, which built the vault with $8m> (?5.4m, ?4.1m) from the
Norwegian government.> > In the event of a sudden disaster such as a nuclear
attack or an> asteroid strike, the seed bank would hold the means to restock
the> Earth's agriculture.> > It would also protect against the much more likely
? some scientists> would even say inevitable ? effects of global warming by
providing> seeds for researchers to breed new crops that can to cope with a>
changing ?climate.> > Mr Fowler explained: "We are losing crop varieties and
crop diversity> all over the place ... [even as] climate change is affecting
the way> some crops grow."> > He pointed to varieties of rice sensitive to
temperature rises much> smaller than those forecasted by climatologists as the
result of> global warming: if exposed to a temperature rise of 1?C during a>
crucial period of growth, the crop's yield is cut by one-tenth.> > If
agricultural scientists could find strains of rice that were able> to withstand
higher temperatures, they could breed varieties to> maintain yields.> > At
present, there is no single seed repository. Collections are> maintained
haphazardly worldwide, meaning samples are lost. Sometimes> samples of
potentially important varieties of plants, along with the> genes that could
have conferred benefits on new plants, become> extinct.> > Seeds from the 1.5m
crop varieties known to be in the world's> collections will be sent to
Svalbard, which will form the repository> of last resort, dispensing seeds for
crop varieties to be regrown only> when all other known examples are gone.> >
Tuesday's delivery of seeds will be attended by Jos? Manuel Barroso,> the
president of the European Commission, and Jens Stoltenberg, the> prime minister
of Norway.> > The Global Crop Diversity Trust has raised $100m of the endowment
of> about $300m needed for the upkeep of the vault and the process of>
collecting and experimenting on seeds.> > Samples will be kept in watertight
foil packets behind blastproof> doors and concrete walls a metre thick. The
vault's remote location ?> 60m under the permafrost of the island of
Spitsbergen, in the> archipelago of Svalbard, one of the most northerly points
of land on> Earth ? is intended to keep the seeds at the low temperatures
required> while also safe from intruders.> > >
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of SaveNoDesign Digest, Vol 11, Issue 15>
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