2.29.2008

On Seeds and "Human Error"

With fully three-quarters of crop biodiversity "extinctified" in the last 100 years through the infinite wisdom of you-know-who, humankind is hedging its bets with a Global Seed Vault near the arctic.

Buried deep in the permafrost (which global warming may ultimately render not-so-perma), with a bomb-proof entrance, the vault is a repository for crop seeds from all over the world, a kind of biological Plan B in case a natural disaster or "human error" (talk about euphemisms!) wipes out all the seeds on earth.

For more info, check out the New York Times slideshow, or read the article, or see Andrew Revkin's DotEarth blog.

1. Patterns of seeds..., 2. The Seeds of Our Bones, 3. Seeds of Change, 4. Seeds

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You should consider getting a hive scale and taking daily measurements of the weight. There is an interesting article this month in American Bee Journal about how changes in hive weight can tell scientists all sorts of things about climate change. NASA even has a program you can contribute data to. Learn more here.