A great example of designing for the long now.
The new repository is intended to be an insurance policy for individual countries and also for humanity more generally, should larger-scale disaster strike (anything from pestilence to an asteroid impact).
The Norwegian government put up more than $7 million for construction. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is providing money to help developing countries package and ship seed samples, as part of a broader $30-million project to protect the genetic diversity of the world’s main food crops.
Comments 2
This is both really cool, and at the same time, really scary – that we would need to plan for a future where a seed repository would be required is a little disturbing, but it’s something of a relief to know that it’s actually being done!
Posted 26 Feb 2008 at 12:07 pm ¶Totally agree. I had no idea that there were so many disparate efforts underway to collect seeds, either.
Of course, this vault is totally worthless if they forget to include watering instructions :p
Posted 26 Feb 2008 at 12:38 pm ¶Post a Comment