It’s small wonder that most of us have found ourselves thinking about the end of days, especially with plenty of books and movies focusing on doomsday events. Some start reading survival guides, others go as far as building nuclear shelters in their backyard, but conservationist Cary Fowler took it to the next level by working with Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) to build a global seed vault.
In 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was opened in Spitsbergen, Norway, with Norwegian government funding the construction with $8.8 million in total. The vault serves as a secure seed bank, storing spare “copies” of seeds from gene banks all over the world, with 930,821 total samples (as of 2017). The Svalbard vault is an attempt to preserve samples of various plants in case of a global crisis. It is built to withstand nuclear threats and severe climate changes, and access to it is restricted.
