seeds

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the end of the world does not scare me. i don't think it'll happen in my lifetime. but even were it to, i have the feeling that i'll be in the majority of people who dies pretty early on, maybe not in the first wave, but certainly before human kind really starts rebuilding. but while watching the very poetic, tho not very good, climate of change documentary, i found out about the svalbard global seed vault. which, honestly, kind of scared me.

the svalbard global seed vault is a secured seedbank on a norwegian island in the arctic. "The facility preserves a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. The seeds are duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault will provide insurance against the loss of seeds in genebanks, as well as a refuge for seeds in the case of large scale regional or global crises." (wikipedia)

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this is probably a really great idea. but for some reason it also creeps me out. i mean, i know we should plan for a huge natural disaster where we can't find viable seeds to plant foods. but that the whole thing was paid for by the norwegian govt, which seems like serious bunch of people (unlike the taiwanese govt who pretty consistently has fist fights during congressional meetings) is just... i can't describe it. anyway, just thought i'd share this freaky bit of "news".