Norway's Ark (of Crops)

Cypros said:

I think this is a brilliant idea! The Norwegians are not waiting for the rest of the world to change its behavior to save the environment:

Norway building 'doomsday vault' to protect seeds

But Norway's ambitious project is on its way to becoming reality. Construction began Monday on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed to house as many as 3 million of the world's crop seeds.

...

Norway's Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen has called the vault a "Noah's Ark on Svalbard."

Its purpose is to ensure the survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change, and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may have been wiped out.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/19/arctic.seedvault.ap/index.html

Click to expand...

The seeds, packaged in foil, would be stored at such cold temperatures that they could last hundreds, even thousands, of years, according to the independent Global Crop Diversity Trust. The trust, founded in 2004, has also worked on the project and will help run the vault, which is scheduled to open and start accepting seeds from around the world in September 2007.

Click to expand...

The Nordic nation is footing the bill, amounting to about $4.8 million for infrastructure costs.

Click to expand...

While Norway will own the vault facility, countries contributing seeds will own the material they deposit -- much as with a bank safe deposit box. The Global Crop Diversity Trust will help developing countries pay the cost of preparing and sending seeds.

Click to expand...