Noah's ark for crop seeds opens in Arctic Norway (Reuters)

[pinto]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Noah's ark for crop seeds opens in Arctic Norway
Tue Feb 26, 2008 10:24am EST

By John Acher

LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (Reuters) - Norway launched a Noah's ark of the plant kingdom on Tuesday to protect crop seeds, among mankind's most valuable resources, from cataclysm inside an Arctic mountainside.

Blasted out of icy rock 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the air-locked vaults would stay frozen for 200 years even in the worst-case scenario of global warming and if mechanical refrigeration were to fail, officials said.

Initially 100 million seeds from more than 100 countries have been sent for safekeeping at the $10 million facility which holds 268,000 seed samples, each from a different farm or field.

"Biological diversity is under threat from the forces of nature ... and from the actions of man," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said at the opening ceremony.

"The seed vault is our insurance policy" against threats such as war, natural disasters or climate change, he said.

http://links.reuters.com/r/MBZD1/4XHN1/Z6KGG/4AUD3/EH8WN/YT/h

[ben_meyers]

1. Norway's biggest quake hits Svalbard archipelago

Coincidence or not, you decide.

OSLO (Reuters) - An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude -- the biggest in Norwegian history -- jolted the thinly populated Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic on Wednesday night, the Norsar seismic research institute said on Thursday.
No one was hurt by the quake and no damage has been reported in the islands, about 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, reports said.
"This is the biggest earthquake on Norwegian territory in history," the institute said in a statement, adding that the quake occurred at sea, about 10 km (6 miles) below the surface.(snip)
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other leaders will be in Svalbard next week for the official opening of a seed vault which will store frozen crop seeds from around the world in case crops are wiped out by a future disaster.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080221/sc_nm/norway_earthquake_dc

Who needs screen writers, you can't make this stuff up.

[Nihil]

2. Easy explanation:

God doesn't like contingency plans - they interfere with His grand design.

:shrug:

Mind you, re-reading it ...

> "This is the biggest earthquake on Norwegian territory in history,"
> the institute said in a statement, adding that the quake occurred at sea,
> about 10 km (6 miles) below the surface.

... it does make me wonder if the next stage in the Big Game Plan is a
release of clathrate hydrates ...
:yoiks: