Did you know that Norway is building a "seed vault" buried 300 ft. in the permafrost of one of their arctic islands which is designed to store and protect food crop seeds in case of a catastrophic world disaster, like nuclear war or an asteroid collision? I guess its a good idea, although I sort of wonder, if the world is contaminated by radiation, where would we plant the seeds? Wouldn't the soil be radioactive too? And in the case of an asteroid, if there's no sun, how would the seeds grow into food crops? I think, in the case of a catastrophic disaster, we'd all just be screwed. Sorry the break the news to you Norway. But then again, what do I know about biology / botany / nuclear sciences / astronomy anyway? Perhaps my more scientifically inclined friends could provide some actual fact-based comments on this subject (instead of just making shit up, like me). Anyway, I just thought this was a wild story. Thought I'd share.
:)
ps: No, I didn't do yoga last night
and No, I didn't post the cutness picture like I said I would
I am lame. :)
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i know i'm not one of the scientifically inclined, but your arguements make sense to me. unless they plan to wait until things die down a little to fish them out, that is provided they survive the catastrophy themselves.
ReplyDeletepersonally, i'm just thinking that when global warming melts their permafrost, that could be one seriously abundant island.
I've been told (by a bookshelver) that all of our problems can be solved by putting giant fans into space. And maybe a little help from Wonder Woman's lasso.
ReplyDeleteI read about the seed bank thing too. I think it is very cool. It is not just in case of huge catastrophies, but also to preserve biodiveristy on the planet. If any of the species in the seed library ever go extinct, we will still have their genetic material to breed plants from. AND, say for example, since we only grow, like 4 kinds of wheat- if the wheat were ever effectively wiped out by some disease, we might have a type of wheat that would be more resistant to that specific disease in the seed library to interbreed with our wheat to prevent everyone from starving. Thats the gist of it, from what I understand.
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