Deep Freeze All the Seeds in New Noah's Ark

(Photo courtesy IHT /Dan Cox)

Millions of seeds, some from the hottest climes, arrived for their exile in the frozen stiff tundra of Svalbard to stave off annihilation from any future doomsday events. Their festive welcoming committee to Spitsberg included Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Wangari Maathai, a children's choir rendition of an ode to seeds, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso of Portugal and many biodiversity specialists and other luminaries.

The United Nations is an integral partner in the project with a large portion of its mission and resources dedicated to Food and feeding the world's hungry in famines, times of perpetual war, disasters causing displacement and drought. Almost 1300 seed banks from around the world are contributing valuable and rare seeds.

An obscure Norwegian island, a mere 1000 kilometers or 600 miles away from the North Pole, amidst the remote Arctic Circle, boasts a cement nuclear proof fortress jutting out of a mountain of ice enshrines the innocuous sounding Global Seed Vault. Eventually, seeds numbering in the billions will reside imprisoned inside a fertile futuristic Noah's Ark, as scientists label and host every known seed on the planet for a project of preservation and conservation. As seeds arrive, they are placed into one of three man made cave vaults dug deep, yet meters high, for protection against flooding, while each of the areas is outfitted with specific climate controls to keep the seeds viable for a thousand years.

"The opening of the seed vault marks a world's crop diversity," says Cary Fowler, executive director of the Rome-based Global Crop Diversity Trust, which led the project. "Crop diversity will soon prove to historic turning point in safeguarding the be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population.

"Rice was the first staple to be stored in the vault—strains from 104 countries around the globe. Sealed in airtight foil packages and encased in boxes, the seeds will remain viable but dormant in the low temperature and humidity conditions.
Wheat, maize, potato, bean and even watermelon seeds will be placed in Svalbard in coming weeks. All told, 268,000 different varieties from Canada, Columbia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Syria, among others, will be the first to enter the deep freeze.

The vault is designed to protect against global-scale disasters—human or natural—that could potentially wipe out agriculture. Similar local seed banks have allowed farmers to recover from recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as provided new varieties capable of growing in changed conditions, such as rice strains that thrive in fields that had been inundated with saltwater after the Asian tsunami in 2004.

Norway is owner in chief of the Vault, but is reaching out to involve the world community of scientists, politicians, and climate change experts in each phase of the project. The rare recent earthquake in Norway did not disturb the Vault or its occupants. However, there are groups, like GRAIN, with deep reservations and concerns that the seed project is bureaucratized and overwhelmingly favors scholars, not the farmers that cultivate seeds in their natural habitats or pass them down as part of their cultural heritage and rituals. In case of a global food shortage or other soil catastrophes, the world's farmers may not be first in line to receive any distributions from the Vault project that may have other protocols they deem necessary to follow. (Photo courtesy IHT /Dan Cox)

The Green Belt Movement gives detail in a state the facts style on the founding of Dr. Maathai's cause and her journey to get the world to pay attention before it was too late. She has many notable firsts; the first Kenyan woman from East or Central Africa to earn her doctorate and the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize and receive the award in Oslo, Norway. Wangari Maathais' quest to plant trees and build an environmental consciousness in Africa and the world is in her treatise, Unbowed: A Memoir. A book for children written about her efforts to save the trees, Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai from Claire A Nivola is lauded by noted conservationist Bill McKibben.

Volcano Risk Extremely High, People Stay

Indonesian officials are evacuating thousands of reluctant angry people at gunpoint out of harm's way of a Mount Kelud volcanic eruption. Villagers and people living on farms on the slopes do not want to leave their livelihoods, crops and livestock behind, believing the mountain will not blow. At least 13,000 are refusing to leave the mountain with some of the survivors having experienced the 1990 eruption staying put. Over 100,000 people live in the immediate danger zone. Refugee camps are tense with frustrated people wanting to leave to check on property and loved ones after being forced by the police to go there. Volcanologists state there is no way to tell with absolute certainty that it will blow, but all signs, sulfur, ground tilt, continuous plumes of gas are present.

"I am afraid of the mountain erupting but so far there have been no signs - the trees near the crater are still green, animals such as monkeys, snakes and hogs haven't come down."

Volcanoes craters plump up in stages like a souffle, with a bubble of magma and gases getting bigger and then deflate to grow bigger the next time. This cooking magma stage has already passed in Java Indonesia. The lake at the crater has turned from a beautiful blue to white from vast amounts of sulfur. Heated water and an explosion could bring horrific mudslides as well. Indonesia is already part of the notorious volcanic and fault-ridden Ring of Fire with earthquakes heralding the arrival of a volcanic blast. On television, volcanic ash looks like giant flakes of snow, but if one breathes in too much of it, it will solidify in a person's lungs. The air fills with poisonous gas, asphyxiating people before the crater blows to release the molten magma burning at temperature high enough to melt steel. (BBC Photo)

Indonesia's top volcano expert, Surono, who goes by only one name, says people living within six miles of the mountain should leave. The government's motto is "safe life," he said.

While Surono would not say what he believes the chances are for an eruption, he did report that there has been "decreased volcanic earthquake activity since yesterday, but the temperature of the water in the volcano has increased to 38 degrees Celsius, which is only a slight increase, but still high." (AFP Photo)

Tempers and temperatures are running hot. Many are just walking out of the camps willing to take the risks. There are complaints of food shortages in the camps. This could turn into a long term nightmare with people penned in without any sure way of knowing for how long. The tension is getting to everyone with the UN looking at a disaster relief nightmare in urban areas and the camps should the volcano erupt. (AFP Photo)




Volcanoes: Crucibles of Change is illustrated fun and knowledge-filled in hefty paperback form from professional volcanologists; Richard V. Fisher, Grant Heinken and Jeffrey Hulen. The pictures are spectacular.

BREAKING NEWS: Peru Suffers Major Earthquakes

Magnitude 7's and above are often killer quakes. These 7.7, 7.5 have hit the capital of Peru. The epicenter is 11 miles (18km) away in Chincha Alta. Lima has sections of buildings especially built to withstand major quakes. Poorer sections of the city do not have the same protections. Damage reports are still coming in, and power is out in sections of the city. A resident's observations:

"But in other parts of Lima, where the buildings are often of very poor quality, there will have been considerable damage, I would imagine."

CNN reports Tsunami warnings have been issued. The Tsunami warning is for Chile, Ecuador and Columbia. While dodging the wrath of Flossie, Hawaii now has a Tsunami Watch in effect until further updates from the Tsunami center.

Updates: TBD 7:32PDT Casualties are starting to be reported. 7:49PDT One Quake at a massive 7.9. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the citizens of Peru.

Dale Grant, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, said 17 deaths were reported in Arequipa, Peru, and 14 deaths in Minocqua. The U.S. National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; a tsunami watch for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama; and a tsunami advisory for Hawaii.

``An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours,'' the weather service said in a statement on its Web site.

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake carries roughly as much energy as 199,000 tons of TNT, according to the USGS. That energy is spread out in waves and not in one particular spot.