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Anna Posyniak‑Dutka The Future Is Locked Away in a Vault

Longyearbyen is the northernmost town inhabited by people. Some call it the gate to the Arctic. Apart from being a starting point of most trips and expeditions towards the North Pole, it houses an absolutely fascinating institution: The Global Seed VaultGlobal Seed VaultGlobal Seed Vault. The top of the building can be spotted from a distance, but it’s like the proverbialproverbialproverbial tip of an iceberg, as what people are able to see is only a tiny bit of the whole system hidden inside a mountain.

The island of Svalbard, where the vault is located, was chosen due to its remotenessremotenessremoteness and the unique conditions it offers. The objectiveobjectiveobjective was to find a place unaffectedunaffectedunaffected by wars and acts of terroracts of terror [act of terror]acts of terror to create a storage placestorage placestorage place where the duplicatesduplicates [duplicate]duplicates of all essential seeds could be kept safely. It’s a kind of backupbackupbackup for global agriculture. There are over a million types of crop seedscrop seeds [crop seed]crop seeds stored in the vault now, and the number is steadily growing as subsequent countries are sending their samplessamples [sample]samples to be depositeddeposited [deposit]deposited in the inventoryinventoryinventory. The facility has a capacitycapacitycapacity to store 4.5 million samples.

The building, if it can be called so as it is technically part of a mountain, is an extremely interesting construction. The entrance visible above the ground level leads to a 150‑metre long tunnel, which goes deep into the mountainside. The tunnel is spaciousspaciousspacious enough for trolleystrolleys [trolley]trolleys to drive along and carry seeds to the vault rooms at the end of it. Out of the three rooms, only the middle one is used for storing seeds at the moment. The thick metal door which separates the tunnel from the seed chamber is covered with ice, as subzero temperature inside it is maintained. These consistent conditions of -18 degrees Celsius are essential, as they let the seeds be preservedpreserved [preserve]preserved in a state that makes it possible to grow crops from them once they are defrosteddefrosted [defrost]defrosted. PermafrostpermafrostPermafrost around the building helps the whole system to be more sustainablesustainablesustainable. Or it used to, as climate change is causing it to thawthawthaw.

The seed chamber is furnishedfurnished [furnish]furnished with floor‑to‑ceiling shelves stacked with labelled boxesstack with labelled boxes [stack with]stacked with labelled boxes. Inside the boxes, there are vacuum‑packedvacuum‑packedvacuum‑packed silver packets and test tubes with seeds from all over the world. Many of them are samples of plants which don’t grow anywhere in the world any more. The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard was established in 2008 and it has already helped to reintroducereintroducereintroduce varieties of plants which would have otherwise been lost forever for example in Syria, which suffered great lossessuffered great losses [suffer great loss]suffered great losses in terms of its biodiversitybiodiversitybiodiversity as a result of war.

There are actually 1,700 similar facilities in various places around the world. The one in Svalbard is special due to the fact that it is a backup for all of them. It cooperates with other gene banksgene banks [gene bank]gene banks to preserve a copy of every unique seed that exists. Some seed vaults have actually fallen victims tofallen victims to [fall victim to]fallen victims to various conflicts and natural catastrophes and if it hadn’t been for the backup of the Svalbard bank, they would have been irreversibly lostirreversibly lostirreversibly lost. Seed banks have been destroyed in Afghanistan and Iraq. A flood caused by the typhoon seriously damaged the resources of the one in the Philippines. These kinds of events are like local doomsdays and result in depleting generic materialdepleting genetic material [deplete genetic material]depleting generic material. Perhaps for that reason the seed bank in Svalbard is called the DoomsdaydoomsdayDoomsday Vault. It is like Noah's Ark for all plants essential for the survival of animals on earth, including humans. It houses 13 thousand years of our agricultural history.

1 Źródło: Anna Posyniak‑Dutka, [na podstawie:] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/15/seed-banks-the-last-line-of-defense-against-a-threatening-global-food-crisis [dostęp 12.06.2022], https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/seed-bank4.html [dostęp 12.06.2022], https://seedvault.nordgen.org/ [dostęp 12.06.2022], https://foodprint.org/issues/biodiversity-and-agriculture/ [dostęp 12.06.2022], https://foodprint.org/issues/biodiversity-and-agriculture/ [dostęp 12.06.2022], licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.