No seeds were lost but the ability of the rock vault to provide failsafe protection against all disasters is now threatened by climate change
Whoa. Surprised by this oneâŚÂ
It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the worldâs most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanityâs food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel.
The vault is on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen and contains almost a million packets of seeds, each a variety of an important food crop. When it was opened in 2008, the deep permafrost through which the vault was sunk was expected to provide âfailsafeâ protection against âthe challenge of natural or man-made disastersâ.
But soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the worldâs hottest ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when light snow should have been falling. âIt was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would experience extreme weather like that,â said Hege Njaa Aschim, from the Norwegian government, which owns the vault.
âA lot of water went into the start of the tunnel and then it froze to ice, so it was like a glacier when you went in,â she told the Guardian. Fortunately, the meltwater did not reach the vault itself, the ice has been hacked out, and the precious seeds remain safe for now at the required storage temperature of -18C.
But the breach has questioned the ability of the vault to survive as a lifeline for humanity if catastrophe strikes. âIt was supposed to [operate] without the help of humans, but now we are watching the seed vault 24 hours a day,â Aschim said. âWe must see what we can do to minimise all the risks and make sure the seed bank can take care of itself.â
