Flooding caused by climate change has hit the Global Seed Vault, which holds samples of the world’s seeds in the event of an apocalyptic catastrophe.
The seeds weren’t damaged, but the entryway of the vault flooded when nearby permafrost melted. Engineers are now designing plans to shore up protections at the storage facility.
The vault has been described as the “Noah’s Ark” of seeds and a last chance for the world to regenerate if the worst happens. Built into a hillside in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, it was established in 2008 as a fail-safe protection for food sources and stores packets of dried and frozen seeds from around the world that can last hundreds of years.
Officials chose the location because they believed the permafrost there was permanent. But in a worrying sign that world-threatening change may be inescapable anywhere on…
