Posthuman Blues

Work Starts on Arctic Food Crop Noah's Ark

Deep inside the Arctic Circle work is about to begin on a giant frozen Noah's Ark for food crops to provide a last bastion in the battle against global warming.

And within a year the first seeds of what will eventually be home for samples of all 1.5 million distinct varieties of agricultural crops worldwide will be tucked safely inside the vaults deep in a mountain on the archipelago of Svalbard.

There, at the end of a tunnel 120 metres (390 ft) into the side of a mountain, 80 metres above estimated sea levels even if all polar ice melts, and 18 degrees Celsius (-0.40F) below freezing, they will stay like a bank security deposit.