Norway to boost protection of Arctic seed vault from climate change - Sensationalist Headlines

[URL="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39987495"]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39987495[/URL] [QUOTE]Norway is boosting the flood defences of its Global Seed Vault on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard after water entered the entrance tunnel last year. The storage facility, deep inside a mountain, is designed to preserve the world's crops from future disasters. Unseasonably high temperatures last year caused the permafrost to melt, sending water into the access tunnel. No seeds were damaged but the facility is to have new waterproof walls in the tunnel and drainage ditches outside. The vault stores seeds from 5,000 crop species from around the world. Dried and frozen, it is believed they can be preserved for hundreds of years. Although most countries keep their own supplies of key varieties, the Global Seed Vault acts as a back-up. If a nation's seeds are lost as a result of a natural disaster or a man-made catastrophe, the specimens stored in the Arctic could be used to regenerate them. Scientists at the facility describe the vault as the most important room in the world.[/QUOTE] I wonder if we have a food-bank like this. Good on Norway for keeping this safe.

It kills me that science was warning about this almost 30 years ago, but greed and laziness means we've ignored every warning and have likely doomed our descendants to several extra centuries of planetary instability. Dear rich guys, money won't mean anything when there's no economy to spend it in. And that day is coming soon.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52254107]It kills me that science was warning about this almost 30 years ago, but greed and laziness means we've ignored every warning and have likely doomed our descendants to several extra centuries of planetary instability. Dear rich guys, money won't mean anything when there's no economy to spend it in. And that day is coming soon.[/QUOTE] They'll be dead before the true consequences of Global Warming come to pass. Out of sight, out of mind. :downs: Who cares when it's somebody else's problem to deal with after you die?

It's mind-boggling to me that we actually have a vault specifically for storing as many different types of seeds as possible. I've known about it for several years but I don't think I'll ever get quite used to the idea.

[QUOTE=BlindSniper17;52254192]They'll be dead before the true consequences of Global Warming come to pass. Out of sight, out of mind. :downs: Who cares when it's somebody else's problem to deal with after you die?[/QUOTE] The best time to say "won't somebody think of the children". Sadly nobody does.

Well I guess if worst comes to worst it'll serve as a grim reminder for whoever's left to rebuild that maybe you should listen to the experts next time.

[QUOTE=BlindSniper17;52254192]They'll be dead before the true consequences of Global Warming come to pass. Out of sight, out of mind. :downs: Who cares when it's somebody else's problem to deal with after you die?[/QUOTE] Let's just hope that they get to see one another die in increasingly horrifying and ironic ways. And that everyone watches them meet such terrible fates. It would be horrifying, and no-one would want to watch, but that's the point. It is horrifying. It is something you don't want to have to witness. But it is the price that must be paid for the rape of the planet. And it is a lesson that mankind as a whole needs to learn if it wishes to survive. Though ideally, the electronic old men would NOT die before we face the full brunt of our world's sickness. They would be kept alive beyond their natural lifespan by agonizing, abhorrent processes, so that they live to see the consequences of their actions and suffer for every dollar their callous tenacity earned them. And when the tide is at its highest, and mankind has dwindled to pre-industrial population levels... then they will be allowed to finally die.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;52254107]It kills me that science was warning about this almost 30 years ago, but greed and laziness means we've ignored every warning and have likely doomed our descendants to several extra centuries of planetary instability. Dear rich guys, money won't mean anything when there's no economy to spend it in. And that day is coming soon.[/QUOTE] There is no point whining about just the last 30 years, you would still be fighting just the symptoms at that point. If you wanted to stop it you would have to go 200 years back and stop the whole industrial revolution and technological progress, and while you are at it you could also go back few hundred years more and stop the deforestation of Europe and other continents. After all that you would be to busy hunting wild animals in the woods and collecting seeds to be posting on Internet.

[QUOTE=AntonioR;52254762]There is no point whining about just the last 30 years, you would still be fighting just the symptoms at that point. If you wanted to stop it you would have to go 200 years back and stop the whole industrial revolution and technological progress, and while you are at it you could also go back few hundred years more and stop the deforestation of Europe and other continents. After all that you would be to busy hunting wild animals in the woods and collecting seeds to be posting on Internet.[/QUOTE] I'd rather have been fighting the symptoms for 30 years instead of doubling down on the things we know are poisoning the only home we have. The fact that the problem began before I was born doesn't change my argument at all.

[QUOTE=Paramud;52254260]It's mind-boggling to me that we actually have a vault specifically for storing as many different types of seeds as possible. I've known about it for several years but I don't think I'll ever get quite used to the idea.[/QUOTE] Honestly it feels like the one thing the world genuinely "got right" in terms of safeguarding the future. Maybe that's why, when every other decision seems to just make things worse.

[QUOTE=AntonioR;52254762]There is no point whining about just the last 30 years, you would still be fighting just the symptoms at that point. If you wanted to stop it you would have to go 200 years back and stop the whole industrial revolution and technological progress, and while you are at it you could also go back few hundred years more and stop the deforestation of Europe and other continents. After all that you would be to busy hunting wild animals in the woods and collecting seeds to be posting on Internet.[/QUOTE] we can have modern technology and be ecologically aware at the same time, you know?