Fascinating. Global warming has unexpected impacts.--Tom M.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurel Hopwood <[log in to unmask]>
To: CONS-SPST-BIOTECH-FORUM <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sat, May 20, 2017 9:54 am
Subject: Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts
Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts
No seeds were lost but the ability of the rock vault to provide failsafe 
protection against all disasters is now threatened by climate change.

EDITED


It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s 
most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s 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.
Soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the world’s hottest 
ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when light snow should 
have been falling.
The breach has questioned the ability of the vault to survive as a 
lifeline for humanity if catastrophe strikes.
“The question is whether this is just happening now, or will it 
escalate?” said Aschim. The Svalbard archipelago, of which Spitsbergen 
is part, has warmed rapidly in recent decades, according to Ketil 
Isaksen, from Norway’s Meteorological Institute.
The vault managers are now taking precautions, including major work to 
waterproof the 100m-long tunnel into the mountain and digging trenches 
into the mountainside to channel meltwater and rain away. They have also 
removed electrical equipment from the tunnel that produced some heat and 
installed pumps in the vault itself in case of a future flood.

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