The Arctic Doomsday Seed Vault To Save The World… Has Flooded Thanks To Global Warming
Having first been used in 2015 to save Syrian biodiversity, the Arctic stronghold for the world's seeds – designed to rescue humanity in case of doomsday – has flooded after permafrost melts due to global warming. While no seeds were lost, The Guardian writes that the ability of the rock vault to provide failsafe protection against all disasters is now threatened by climate change.
As a reminder, on a remote island that is just 800 miles (1,300 km) from the North Pole, the Norwegian government has built a failsafe in the freezing cold that protects thousands of the most vital crops from extinction.
Officially called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, it already holds close to a million samples of crops around the world, with each sample holding about 500 seeds. The following infographic, from Futurism, has more on this Doomsday Vault that could one day help to save civilization:
Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist
However, as The Guardian reports, while it was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world's most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity's food supply forever, the Global Seed Vault has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel.
When it was opened in 2008, the deep permafrost through which the vault was sunk was expected to provide "failsafe" protection against "the challenge of natural or man-made disasters".
But soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the world's hottest ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when light snow should have been falling. "It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would experience extreme weather like that," said Hege Njaa Aschim, from the Norwegian government, which owns the vault.
"A lot of water went into the start of the tunnel and then it froze to ice, so it was like a glacier when you went in," she told the Guardian. Fortunately, the meltwater did not reach the vault itself, the ice has been hacked out, and the precious seeds remain safe for now at the required storage temperature of -18C.
But the breach has questioned the ability of the vault to survive as a lifeline for humanity if catastrophe strikes. "It was supposed to [operate] without the help of humans, but now we are watching the seed vault 24 hours a day," Aschim said. "We must see what we can do to minimise all the risks and make sure the seed bank can take care of itself."The vault's managers are now waiting to see if the extreme heat of this winter was a one-off or will be repeated or even exceeded as climate change heats the planet. The end of 2016 saw average temperatures over 7C above normal on Spitsbergen, pushing the permafrost above melting point.
"The question is whether this is just happening now, or will it escalate?" said Aschim. The Svalbard archipelago, of which Spitsbergen is part, has warmed rapidly in recent decades, according to Ketil Isaksen, from Norway's Meteorological Institute.
Aschim said there was no option but to find solutions to ensure the enduring safety of the vault: "We have to find solutions. It is a big responsibility and we take it very seriously. We are doing this for the world."
"This is supposed to last for eternity," said Åsmund Asdal at the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre, which operates the seed vault.