The Guardian reports that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a seed bank near Longyearbyen on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, has flooded due to "melting and heavy rain." The seeds remain safe, according to the article.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @06:29AM (1 child)
The most important thing is to place copies around the world.
You want locations that can support suitable staff. Generally, this means universities.
You should have diversity of government due to war. Don't go 100% NATO, or 100% pacific rim, or 100% OPEC, or 100% in any other alliance. This applies not just to the physical location. It also applies to funding sources and staff citizenship.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @08:44AM
Yeah, there's that.
Another thing is, just as with data backups, you need to verify the viability of what you have.
Standard practice is to replant a portion of the stock every X years and collect the resulting new seeds. [google.com]
If you don't have soil nearby and a reasonable growing season, that makes things more difficult.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]