Nation & World

<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) A police officer watches last-minute preparations inside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway, on Tuesday. The "doomsday" seed vault was built inside an Arctic mountain to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters.   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Pilot just thought he saw a dime on the runway 2/27/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Do you have a news tip? newstips@heraldnet.com | 425.339.3400   Published: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Norway puts seeds on ice in "doomsday" vault Associated Press LONGYEARBYEN, Norway -- Norway opened a frozen "doomsday" vault Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain where millions of seeds will be stored to safeguard against wars or natural disasters wiping out food crops around the globe. Biblical references repeatedly cropped up as guests at the opening ceremony carried the first seed deposits into the vault in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. "This is a frozen Garden of Eden," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, standing in one of the frosty vaults against a backdrop of large discs made of ice. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called the vault an "insurance policy" and added his own biblical comparison: "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations." Svalbard Global Seed Vault, just 620 miles from the North Pole, is designed to house as many as 4.5 million crop seeds from all over the world. It is built to withstand global warming, earthquakes and even nuclear strikes. The first deposit in the vault was a box of rice seeds from 104 countries. The vault, built by the Norwegian government for $9.1 million, will operate like a bank box. Norway owns the bank, but the countries depositing seeds own them and can use them as needed free of charge. The vault will serve as a backup to the other 1,400 seed banks around the world, in case their deposits are lost. War wiped out seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and another bank in the Philippines was flooded in the wake of a typhoon in 2006. The seeds are packed in silvery foil containers -- as many as 500 in each sample -- and placed on blue and orange metal shelves inside three 32-by-88-foot storage chambers. Each vault can hold 1.5 million sample packages of all types of crop seeds, from carrots to wheat. The group was founded by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International, a Rome-based research group.

1. 5 die of swine flu in Snohomish County 2. Driver charged in deaths of 4 3. Red Cross honors acts of heroism, many by ordinary people 4. Barista clothing rules delayed by County Council 5. Haugen's husband accused of sexual assault in civil suit 6. Ruskell steps down as Seahawks GM 7. Three people hurt in Everett house fire 8. Steelhead anglers finding mixed results 9. Airbus wins order for 52 single-aisle jets 10. Silvertips hammered 2 - Top 10 Stories Most Talked about 3 - Top 10 Stories Most Emailed

• Wildcats fall to familar foe in semis • ‘Nutcracker' times three • Road warrior • Mavericks reloading • Holiday Lightings & Santa Sightings • Cities prepare for winter blast repeat • Wolfpack duo takes last shot at state tourney • This Weekend in Your Town • Tips for the stormy season • Boeing will build, flight test and deliver 787s in South Carolina to spe ... • Snohomish County EDC promoting job growth in key industry clusters • $4 million grant to advance brain tumor research has Everett links • Providence medical center construction tops off its 12-story steel frame ... • Tulalip affordable housing project to be financed by KeyBank, Raymond Ja ... • Arlington's Lak of Ink has a growing following for Luke Kooyman's creati ... • Bank of the Northwest formed • Cascade Bank earns $1.6 million