Beneath an icy mountain between Norway and the North Pole, seeds of 4,000 kinds of plants wait in a locked vault. For years and years, they will sleep there, untouched.
But wait—look! Workers are carrying boxes of seed samples out of the vault right now! That wasn’t the plan!
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault—the one deep in the icy mountain—isn’t the world’s only seed storage place. But it might be the most important one. Countries from all around the world stash samples of their seeds there in case a horrible disaster strikes much of the Earth. If that ever happens, scientists will take the seeds out. Farmers will replant them so people have food to eat.
Right now, the Middle Eastern country of Syria faces a horrible civil war. Syria’s seed bank sits in a war zone. It holds seeds from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. But now most scientists can’t get to those seeds. It is too dangerous for scientists—and anyone else, for that matter—to safely stay in Syria at all. Seeds can go extinct just like animals can. What will Middle Easterners, Asians, and Africans do if war wipes out their wheat, barley, chickpea, and lentil crops, leaving them without enough seeds to plant?
Thankfully, the keepers of the Syrian seed bank planned ahead. Years ago, they slipped copies of their seeds into tiny aluminum packages. They tucked those tiny packages into 130 boxes. Then they sent those boxes to the icy underground vault at the top of the world.
Now the keepers of the Syrian seed bank need their seeds back. They will use the seeds in safer countries—Morocco and Lebanon. They will grow new plants from them. The new plants will produce new seeds. The seeds banks in Morocco and Lebanon will keep some of the seeds. But some will go back to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Then if another emergency happens, the seeds will still be safe.
People have nicknamed the Svalbard seed bank the “doomsday vault.” Will it really help if disaster comes to our planet? The seed bank’s first opening acts as a test. So far, it seems to work very well!
