Tag Archives: Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Doom’s day: Massive entrance overhaul at even higher price nearly done for seed vault’s ‘real’ 10th anniversary
Last year virtually everybody was here celebrating the 10-year existence (widely mislabeled as the 10th anniversary) of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, gathering at an entrance so badly designed it was undergoing an upgrade more than two times as expensive as the original cost of the entire facility.
This year virtually nobody is here for the true 10th anniversary of the vault (remember, the first anniversary is one year after it opened), which occurs shortly before the upgrades are tested to to ensure the vault really is worthy of its “doomsday” moniker.
CATASTROPHIC COSTS: 250 homes in Longyearbyen to be demolished, 220M kr. for new housing and safeguards due to climate change
Forget the “alarmist” predictions about climate change impacts. During a year of actual catastrophes globally, here is Longyearbyen’s: 1) There are currently about 1,100 households in Longyearbyen. 2) about 250 residences are scheduled for demolition due to avalanche exposure, softening permafrost and other climate change factors.
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of September 4, 2018
A unique “freezing wall” is protecting the seed vault during its reconstruction, demolition of about 150 structures in avalanche-prone areas is scheduled to begin next fall and a polar bear disrupts the plans of an annual youth camp.
Massive upgrade or mishap? 100M kroner overhaul proposed on seed vault’s 10th birthday – nearly triple original cost of ‘fix’
A tale of two vaults: At 10, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a duel persona of hope and hysteria
It was the best of designs, it was the worst of designs. It was the age of vision, it was the age of foolhardiness. It was the epoch of inevitability, it was the season of incomprehension. It was the season of bright, it was the season of blackout; it was the spring of horizons, it was the winter of disrepair. We had knowledge before us, we had idiotic conspiracy theories before us. We were all going directly to…oh, hell – if Armageddon happens it’s not like the Left Behind will be queueing at what misguided souls think are the well-guarded doors of Svalbard’s most famous structure.
Abandon all hope: Svalbard’s 10 biggest stories of 2017
We’re not going to spin it: the year known as 2017 was a disaster – literally.
An avalanche early on shook the community and its leaders to its foundations, climate change inflicted maybe its most humiliating impact on us yet, Barentsburg suffered through two fatal crashes and the hope of some kind of future in terms of Store Norske’s coal mines suffered a death far more painful than even the most pessimistic envisioned.
Briefs from Svalbardposten for the week of Nov. 28, 2017
Seed vault to get new entry, admin building due to faults
The entrance to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which has already spent 37 million kroner to repair leakage and drainage problem, will now be demolished and rebuilt with a waterproof door and reinforced concrete tunnel, according to Stasbygg.
This week in Doomsday nonsense: ‘The Uninhabitable Earth,’ ‘Arks of the Apocalypse,’ DNA evidence for the end of the world
To proclaim we’re all dead men walking is hardly alarmist: that’s been the case for everyone on Earth except for a few cases like Jesus or Lord Voldemort before his Horcruxes were vanquished. But calling a bit of water leakage into Svalbard Global Seed Vault a key sign of a mass extinction event now underway comparable to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs might be a doomsday cry too far.
Doomsday deluge: Ongoing flood of articles about seed vault results in officials fencing off road during repairs
It’s been a month since The Guardian’s absurd story about the “flooding” of the Doomsday Vault, but new headlines and articles with various bits of nonsense are still appearing daily. And for the conspiracy theorists there’s a new wrinkle: a fence has suddenly been erected at the roadway entrance.
Random weirdness for the week of June 20, 2017
Yeah, lots of people make fun of Svalbarði’s “super premium” glacier water that costs 400 kroner per 750-milliliter bottle here and twice that elsewhere. But at least it’s marketable as a unique taste of the purity of Svalbard. That can’t be said for the latest bonkers beverage that’s roughly the equivalent of grinding up the world’s most expensive steak and using it to make chili.
