A Visit To The Doomsday Vault

Scott Pelley Visits One Of The World's Most Unique Seed Banks

(CBS)  Cary Fowler runs the Global Crop Diversity Trust set up by the United Nations and a group called Bioversity International. His safe house cost $9 million. Norway paid for construction, Bill Gates paid for the shipping, and seeds from nearly every nation on earth are locked inside.

Svalbard may seem a strange place to build an ark for plants. The islands are a white desert, barren and chilled to 30 below zero. The sun never comes up over the horizon in the wintertime. It's ironic that the world’s agricultural heritage is being stored in a place with no agriculture at all.

But the mountains are just the place to save the resources of life itself-remote from nuclear war, from storms, and rising seas.

"These resources stand between us and catastrophic starvation on a scale we cannot imagine. And we now have, I think, kind of a perfect storm hitting agriculture," Fowler says.

That "perfect storm" is crop extinction, a world population growing 50 percent in the next 50 years and global warming.

At the University of Washington, Professor David Battisti says in 100 years, farmers will face temperatures unlike any in human history and more like millions of years ago.

What were conditions like then?

"Let me describe it this way, you have crocodiles in Ellesmere Island, which is in the edge of the Arctic. You have palm trees in Wyoming," Battisti explains.

Battisti's data come from the Nobel Prize winning climate research of the U.N. His work is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Battisti projects that droughts of the past will pale in comparison to what he believes is coming.

"If you think about the Dust Bowl in the U.S., and you think 'Well there was a decade where you had on the average of maybe five percent reduction in precipitation, you know, for the growing season,'" he says. "Southern California, the Caribbean, Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Central Asia, all these places, 100 years from now, will typically experience on average 20 to 30 percent reduction in precipitation, right? So that’s five times the Dust Bowl."

Whether it's a dry climate, a new virus, or infestation, the genes to stop a famine may be in one of the boxes stored in the vault. When the last of the seeds descends the tunnel, the lights will go out, the vault will be locked, and Cary Fowler will have achieved his life’s work-preserving civilization’s past against an uncertain future.

"So, if worst comes to worst this does save the world," he says. "But it also has a more mundane feature which is that it helps us everyday by feeding people."

[dopelgangera]

In addition to providing for physical survival in the event of a worst-case scenario, is there any thought to preserving culture? Depending on the nature & cause of a worldwide catastrophe, books (or knowledge in other recorded form) may need to be preserved (unless biological survival alone is all that one views as important).

[dneely3-2009]

the story on the doomsday vault was great until you had to litter it with the prediction of major droughts 100 years from now...we can''t even predict the weather tomorrow. Why do you try to scare people?

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by sblake63 at 04:02 PM

All you are doing is repeating the same old bull krapp. Get a life. You people worship men. You don''t know any god that isn''t a man. You talk like someone who has fed off the same piece krap forever.

[hypnotoad72]

Hey, why can''t we talk about the following article instead:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/24/health/webmd/main3961093.shtml?source=mostpop_story

:)

?

[bobnjersey]

[Only one God dude.]
[Posted by sblake63 at 04:02 PM : Mar 24, 2008]

is it really one ... or is it ''three in one''?

[sblake63]

Posted by sblake63 at 11:07 AM

QUICK!!! TURN ON THE RADIO!! YOUR GOD LIMBAUGH WILL BE ON SHORTLY!! TRY NOT TO THINK, JUST DO AS YOU ARE TOLD! THE LIMBAUGH KNOWS ALL!!!


Posted by rudy654 at 12:38 PM : Mar 24, 2008

________________________

Only one God dude. As far as radio hosts, who cares this time the democrats own dumb choices a dude with muslim connections and a pastor who hates america or a female who''s one of the most hated figures in history. What a blunder LOL. But then again democrats = socialists = communists and remember what happen to them. The left is doomed to fail. GOP in 2008 - Face it!!

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by mac4440 at 08:20 AM

A little reading will demonstrate just how much Monsanto and others are trying to get a patent on life. You are deceived if you think they aren''t.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by sblake63 at 11:07 AM

QUICK!!! TURN ON THE RADIO!! YOUR GOD LIMBAUGH WILL BE ON SHORTLY!! TRY NOT TO THINK, JUST DO AS YOU ARE TOLD! THE LIMBAUGH KNOWS ALL!!!

[hypnotoad72]

sblake63 - offshoring and importing labor instead of teaching our own. Sounds like you''re against it to a certain extent?

[sblake63]

If Obama or Hilldo win the election that vault will come in handy.

Posted by darkmeat4 at 09:59 AM : Mar 24, 2008

Please the neo cons have taken the world to the brink and we the American voters are going to make certain that your ilk is put to rest.


Posted by antoniof123 at 10:07 AM : Mar 24, 2008

_______________

Lmao at this the voters are going to do what? Look at the recent polls socialist america hating tards! Lmao@ your dream boy Obama and his pastor who blams America for 9-11? Obama wont disown the dude who clearing by his sermons thinks his own nation is "evil". And Hillary? LMFAO@ her, most polls show McCain beating her by 7 points at least?

Us "neo-cons" are here to stay, but if ya dont like it? Move to Europe, I hear they are looking for so called "highly skilled" workers because they over did it allowing immigrants from peice of trash places like west Africa (remember the Paris riots). So maybe I spoke too soon? LOL.. A conservative president took over in France because the people woke up to the socialist nonsense of past goverments allowing "dead weight" people to trash their nation. So maybe europe isnt such a good place. Liberalism is going extinct foks..

Most liberals are clearly unhappy hear and have dreams of sweeping conservatives away with their "dream team".. It will never happen - Face it!

[stn_sage]

If Obama or Hilldo win the election that vault will come in handy.
Posted by darkmeat4 at 09:59 AM : Mar 24, 2008

My response: OH, PUH-LEEZE! After B/C have managed to screw up everything they''ve touched, including starting an unnecessary world war, all the while clamoring for another by invading Iran?! And we''re supposed to worry about what ObamaClinton might do?!
HAHAHAHAHAHA! That''s the funny one, you neocon nazi!

I know this---neither of them is stupid enough to do that! They''ll be too busy trying to straighten things out after 8 years of Republican irresponsibility, corruption, and sexual perversion!

When are you neocons going to pressure Larry Craig out of office?!
Yeah, I thought so! That''s your real stance on family values---you''re a bunch of closet perverts! Good day.

[antoniof123]

If Obama or Hilldo win the election that vault will come in handy.

Posted by darkmeat4 at 09:59 AM : Mar 24, 2008

Please the neo cons have taken the world to the brink and we the American voters are going to make certain that your ilk is put to rest.

[mac4440]

Hey p-61bw,You think you are smarter than the people doing this? It will work and here''s why; many species of plants are self pollinating. And to those who think Monsanto is forcing GMO seeds on the farmers, think again. There is non-GMO seed available. Farmers have a choice. And they choose to plant whatever provides the best return on their money.

[it_oldtimer]

Supposing that a global nuclear war or a global climate catastrophe does happen - how do the survivors get into this locked vault to get at those seeds? How will they even know where they are?

Just curious...

[wmmccall-2009]

How can 60 Minutes do a story on saving the world''s seeds without a mention of Monsanto and the great harm it is doing. Monsanto, with its genetic manipulation of seeds is imperilling the world''s food supply.

[ameling1]

CBS should explain why there were 7,100 varities of apples in North America in 1800 when there were zero varities in 1600. Apples came from eurasia in the 1600s

[ameling1]

CBS should explain why there were 7,100 varities of apples in North America in 1800 when there were no varities in 1600. Apples came from Eurasia in the 1600s.

[NorthrupP61]

It won''t work and here''s why:
To produce a crop, plants have to be pollinated, and the pollinators can be very plant-specific. They''ve evolved alongside the plant.

With our use of pesticides and change of climate, with the loss of habitat and introduction of competitors and disease we''re killing off the INSECTS, BATS and BIRDS that the plants need if they''re to survive.

Post disaster, maybe we can hand pollinate a small amount of some species of plants but we''ll NEVER be able to keep a large enough crop size to sustain a large human population.

[occams_taser]

With Bush as President I suppose this kind of Dr Strangelove *** is needed, in case the moron starts World War III.

[rudy654-2009]

Okay. enough with the religious nuts.