2012 Blog » Seed Vault

Seed Bank Insurance / Korean Doomsday Movie

Robert Bast — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:22:44 +0000

Seed banks are incredibly valuable resources, and an acknowledgement that sometimes there SHTF events that require emergency backups. Seed banks can help restart horticulture in the event of a natural disaster or spread of a disease. But what if harm comes to the seed bank itself? Wars have destroyed seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan. And during last year’s uprising in Egypt a seed bank was looted.

Sensibly the Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas – based in Syria – have decided to send a duplicate collection of their seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It’s a doomsdat bunker for seeds, located in the Norwegian Arctic. In total, 25000 new samples are being sent to Svalbard this week, bringing the total stored there to an incredible 740,000. Alongside Syria, the new samples include a further 12,000 from the USA. Full story at Associated Press.

Doomsday Book is a movie in production in South Korea, and a teaser trailer has just been released:

Two directors, Kim Jee-woon (I Saw the Devil) and Yim Pil-sung (Hansel & Gretel) have created one segment each, and collaborated on a third. The featured doomsday scenarios are a pandemic, the rise of machines (robots) and a meteor headed for Earth – all of which make my list of 2012 possibilities.

Seed Bank Insurance / Korean Doomsday Movie is a post from: 2012 Blog

Seed Vaults

Robert Bast — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:49:00 +0000

Previously I have mentioned the amazing seed vault in Norway, that seemingly offers plants a better chance of surviving a cataclysm than humans have.

Other places to find species kept safe include:

Native Seeds – 2000 plant varieties in Tucson, USA.

Ambrose Monell Cryo Collection – houses a million frozen tissue samples representing the DNA of a wide range of animal species. Located in New York City.

Millennium Seed Bank Project – large underground frozen vaults in West Sussex, UK, preserving the world’s largest collection of seeds. Now has over 1 billion seeds stored. Aiming to cover 24,000 species of plants, approximately 10% of all existing dry land flora.

Seed Vaults is a post from: 2012 Blog

Inside the "Doomsday" Seed Vault

Robert Bast — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 22:59:00 +0000

National Geographic have published photos of the vault that has been built at the island of Spitsbergen, Norway. Pics of the nearest town are included as well.

Inside the "Doomsday" Seed Vault is a post from: 2012 Blog