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The permafrost where the vault is dug significantly melted last year. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flo

• icelancer 8y ago
  I get that climate change is a problem but this article reads like they blame it and man-made effects 100%. Shouldn't the vault be very well constructed against things like this, especially since it's supposed to stand for decades without human intervention?
  • fanzhang 8y ago
    Totally. The vault is supposed to stand up to unseen man-made disasters, and variability in a known trend caused a breach in integrity? I'm not sure this says that global warming is much faster than predicted by the most aggressive models 10 years ago, as it says the vault was simply not designed well. I applaud the cause, but for a worldwide backup, it does suggest more resources/design could have been used.
  • yoz-y 8y ago
    The headlines at that time were largely sensational. Some precisions were made later: the seeds were never in danger, only the beginning of the tunnel was flooded. The tunnel is long and it is there precisely for this reason.
• bwanab 8y ago
  I saw Cary Fowler speak last week. He's the guy that organized the Svalbard vault. He said the news reports on this were highly inaccurate and exaggerated. Their was a small amount of water in the opening area, but it got no where near the actual seeds. A fix is already in the works.