Global Seed Vault Opens in Norway

By ,

It reminds me of Petra, Jordan.

Thinking about climate change, GMOs, famine, war, and drought is depressing, but seeing projects like this come to fruition makes you feel all ooey-gooey inside.

As a service to humanity, Norway has taken it upon themselves to store billions of seeds in three caverns (20m by 10m by 6m high) blown out in the side of a mountain. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located on an isolated island off the northeast coast of Greenland, received its inaugural shipment of seeds today from around the world: 47,000 strains of wheat from Mexico, 30,000 bean varieties from Columbia, 30,000 seed samples of barley from the Middle East, and many many more.

Of course, what would be a giant seed repository without some fun installation artwork?


[fiber optic cable installation care of Dyveke Sanne]

Check out the Seed Bank’s website here, and news coverage here.

 

Related Topics

terryman

Dave Semeniuk spends hours locked up in his office, thinking about the role the oceans play in controlling global climate, and unique ways of studying it. He'd also like to shamelessly plug his art practice: davidsemeniuk.com