Green Group discussion

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

Permafrost is melting faster than imaginable and rain fell instead of expected snow.

They were hoping the facility would automatically run by itself. Back to the drawing board.

Every structure in the polar regions that uses permafrost as part of the building structure is at risk.

"It is a fail-safe seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters. The Seed Vault represents the world’s largest collection of crop diversity." - SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT

https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/sv...

At some point in time, which is getting closer and closer, people are going to have to take their heads out of the sand.

It was hoped that the various diseases that mosquitoes are capable of carrying would fight each other to get the upper hand [human logic], when more than one was in the mosquito. Instead, they seem to co-operate with each, so you can get infected by multiple diseases from one mosquito bite. It's funny how all around us, the smaller life forms are advancing in capabilities, while we are finding ourselves treating ourselves to imaginary benefits or solutions that only the very richest can afford.

Relevant book: Food Chained: How the agri-business oligarchy has monopolized the world food supply and the disastrous results for farmers and consumers

From The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

"The Cherokee seeds will be only the second deposit from an indigenous community to be stored in the Svalbard vault, following the deposit of 750 South American Andean potato seeds in 2015.

“The Cherokee nation is the only place on the planet where all these crops are grown, and these days tough weather patterns make the situation precarious,” Pat Gwin, the tribe’s senior director of environmental resources, told the Guardian from Oklahoma."

A slightly different version in EcoWatch.
https://www.ecowatch.com/cherokee-nat...

Whole Foods, the grocery company that Amazon bought, has put big labels on the store shelves for every product that indicates if the product is GMO. The labels can not be missed. It is like they picked a font size and pattern that can easily be seen by people who have a lot of difficulty seeing what they are looking at. I will have to check to see what it means when it is not GMO free. One GMO ingredient in the mix, or the lack of data, would go a long way towards explaining why so much is GMO.

Not about seeds, but about Svalbard, a location assuming greater importance. We can see that as the Arctic warms, more science bases are going to be placed here.

https://rte.social.ebu.io/X1QY8640ZUZY

"Melting ice opens the door to new sea routes in the Far North and access to natural resources

All powers are trying to position themselves to get a share of the pie.

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean under Norwegian sovereignty. It is the closest inhabited place to the North Pole and ground zero of global warming. The area has in recent years become key in geopolitics in the context of the ongoing confrontation between the West and Russia and the interests of the powers. Relations between Longyearbyen, the most important locality in Svalbard, and Barentsburg, the main Russian settlement, have been frozen since the invasion of Ukraine.

The Svalbard Treaty
With melting ice and global warming, the Arctic has become a key part of global geo-strategy and the Norwegian archipelago has taken on an increasingly important role. It is also the best and easiest access to the Arctic. "The Gulf Stream makes the west coast of Svalbard accessible even in winter. Russia has access points, but they are all military. They are closed," explains the mayor of Longyearbyen, Leif Terje Aunevik. He adds, "Thanks to Svalbard, we are also an Arctic superpower on the same level as Russia, the United States, Canada, Greenland. So, in strategic terms, Svalbard is extremely important."

In 1920, the Treaty of Svalbard granted sovereignty over the archipelago to Norway which, since then, has managed to maintain stability and peace. The agreement has already been signed by almost 50 countries, including most of the European Union and NATO countries, as well as Russia, China and North Korea.

Now everyone is positioning themselves to await the sharing of the treasures that will emerge when the ice disappears and new sea routes open up and resources such as oil, gas, rare earths or precious minerals can be accessed. "Everyone knows that the Arctic is the future, transportation, the Arctic is resources," Andrei Chemerilo, the Russian Federation's consul in Barentsburg, reminds us. "In recent years, the Northern sea route has become an increasingly used and relevant transport route," the director of the Arctic and Antarctic Institute in the Russian settlement, Aleksandr Novikov, apostrophizes. Arctic routes are 30-50% shorter than those of the Suez and Panama Canal.

The Svalbard Treaty established, among other things, that the signatory countries could settle in the territory and exploit its resources on equal terms, but under Norwegian law. And it clearly states in Article 9 that the archipelago may not be used for military purposes or militarized. There are countries that question Norway's sovereignty. Others, such as China, want to consolidate their presence. Beijing even tried to buy the last private land in the archipelago. The Norwegian government stopped the operation.

"Science is a political tool to get into the Arctic. It's pretty obvious. And what do nations that don't have landmass do in the Arctic? They build huge icebreakers and scientific vessels. And they claim to have a piece of the Arctic. This also can be seen with China. In 2010, it claimed its status as a state close to the Arctic, which, when you look at the map, sounds a bit odd," explains, with some derision, the mayor of Longyearbyen. "There are countries that are very interested in having a presence in Svalbard, even if it's not profitable for them," says Spanish biologist Beatriz Albiol."

https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20240927...

In 1984, it was sufficient to store the seeds in an abandoned coal mine that was surrounded by permafrost. As the climate has warmed up, more elaborate methods are put into place to keep the seeds existence secure.

There is also talk that the mechanical refrigeration systems will have to be upgraded again so that the seeds will continue to be well protected as the surrounding area continues warms up. The on site refrigeration is powered by a coal fired power plant.

A couple of years ago some water did leak into the entrance tunnels from the melting permafrost. Since then the tunnels have been waterproofed and set up in such a way as to prevent liquid water from flowing in the tunnels.

More on seeds:
Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them