Climate change as a matter of fact: Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen

Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts.  (The Guardian, 1/19/2017)

The vault is on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen and contains almost a million packets of seeds, each a variety of an important food crop. When it was opened in 2008, the deep permafrost through which the vault was sunk was expected to provide “failsafe” protection against “the challenge of natural or man-made disasters”. 

But soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the world’s hottest ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when light snow should have been falling. “It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would experience extreme weather like that,” said Hege Njaa Aschim, from the Norwegian government, which owns the vault.

Other climate change as a matter of fact posts:
Madeline Island, Wisconsin.  (2/23/2017)
Mexico City.  (2/19/2017)
Kansas.  (1/29/2017)
Moose of Maine.  (1/21/2017)
Florida Keys.  (1/14/2017)
California wine country.  (1/11/2017)
Kaktovik, Alaska.  (12/20/2016)
Bolivia.  (7/11/2016)
Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park.  (7/7/2016)
Kiribati.  (7/6/2016)

Peru,  (5/21/2016)