Construction was funded by the Norwegian government, which operates the vault in partnership with the Crop Trust. The idea was conceived in the 1980s by Cary Fowler, a former executive director of the Crop Trust, but only started to become reality after an International Seed Treaty negotiated by the U.N. The Svalbard vault was opened in 2008, effectively as a backup storage unit for all those hundreds of thousands of varieties. This global network collects, preserves and shares seeds to further agricultural research and develop new varieties. There are as many as 1,700 versions of the vault, called gene banks, all over the world. Not only what we eat, but what we wear, nature all about us.” “Seeds generally are the basis for everything. It is almost as important as water and air,” says Haga. “Not too many think about crop diversity as being so fundamentally important, but it is. This is particularly important with the challenges of climate change. One of the 200,000 varieties of rice within the vault could have the trait needed to adapt rice to higher temperatures, for example, or to find resistance to a new pest or disease. But the genetic diversity contained in the vault could provide the DNA traits needed to develop new strains for whatever challenges the world or a particular region will face in the future. And many don’t exist outside of the seed collections they came from. ![]() The seeds lying in the deep freeze of the vault include wild and old varieties, many of which are not in general use anymore. This monoculture nature of agriculture leaves food supplies more susceptible to threats such as diseases and drought. has lost over 90% of its fruit and vegetable varieties since the 1900s. Only 10% of the rice varieties that China used in the 1950s are still used today, for example. But while crop yields have increased, biodiversity has decreased to the point that now only about 30 crops provide 95% of human food-energy needs. Over the past 50 years, agricultural practices have changed dramatically, with technological advances allowing large-scale crop production. They have very little monetary value, but the boxes potentially hold the keys to the future of global food security. In here, the seeds are stored in vacuum-packed silver packets and test tubes in large boxes that are neatly stacked on floor-to-ceiling shelves. ![]() There are three vaults leading off from the chamber, but only one is currently in use, and its door is covered in a thick layer of ice, hinting at the subzero temperatures inside. At the end of this corridor is a chamber, an added layer of security to protect the vaults containing the seeds. Through one door is a wide concrete tunnel illuminated by strip lighting leading 430 ft. The entrance leads to a small tunnel-like room filled with the loud whirring noise of electricity and cooling systems required to keep the temperature within the vault consistent. Its only neighbor is a similar repository buried away from the dangers of the world: the Arctic World Archive, which aims to preserve data for the world’s governments and private institutions, opened deep in a nearby mine on March 27. It is situated in a safe place,” says Bente Naeverdal, a property manager who oversees the day-to-day operation of the vault. “It is away from the places on earth where you have war and terror, everything maybe you are afraid of in other places. It was precisely for its remoteness that Svalbard was chosen as the location of the vault. Īfter the war with Brainiac and the subsequent rise to power of General Zod, the vault was revealed to be empty, resulting in the Doomsday's escape.Near the entrance to the facility, a rectangular wedge of concrete that juts out starkly against the snowy landscape, the doomsday nickname seems eerily apt. ![]() When they came here, it was empty, as Seg and Jayna earlier warned the sect to remove it from the vault. ĭru once again returned to pick up Doomsday to destroy Brainiac Lyta reluctantly agreed to follow him. Dru started the conflict, but he and his allies escaped. The Cythonnites however found him, Seg and Lyta, warning them about their knowledge of this creature. When General Zod went back in time he began looking for the vault to use the weapon inside against Brainiac. After the Cythonnites witnessed the destruction Doomsday wrought they decided to remain in the catacombs of Kandor and protect the vault. The vault has the combined symbols of House of El and House of Zod and was design so that a member of each house would have to use their blood unlock the door. Once it became clear that Doomsday could not be controlled or destroyed the House of El and House of Zod sealed him away. House of El and House of Zod created Doomsday as a weapon during Krypton's pre-cataclysm era. The Doomsday Vault is a vault in the catacombs of Kandor City created by House of El and House of Zod to contain Doomsday.
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