It seems that there is often troubling news mixed into otherwise promising stories. For example, I just read Biodiversity 'doomsday vault' comes to life in Arctic. It's nice to know that some of our planet's biodiversity is being backed up like we back up our harddrives. It's always good to have a back-up copy, right? I'm not troubled much by the thought that we might actually need such a vault. As a child of the Cold War, I came to terms with mass catastrophe, apocalypse, armageddon, and all that years ago. As someone who lives along the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico, I know first-hand what regional devastation looks and feels like.
What troubled me in this article was this paragraph:
Many of the more vulnerable seed banks have begun contributing to the "doomsday vault" collection, but some of the world's biodiversity has already disappeared, with gene vaults in both Iraq and Afghanistan destroyed by war and a seed bank in the Philippines annihilated by a typhoon.
How odd that there were gene vaults
in Iraq and Afghanistan, two major places of violent American meddling. I wonder how many countries have gene vaults.
Another troubling bit of info in the article:
...samples sent from Colombia have been closely scrutinised by police to avoid the project becoming a vehicle for drug trafficking.
WTF!? I hope to God that petty moralities aren't interfering in an important scientific/historical endeavor. We're talking about the future of life on this planet and some jackasses are worried that the vault's going to become a cocaine distribution warehouse? Seriously?
There are a lot of powerful people on this planet who need to grow up.
3 comments:
Yo,dude! It's the Brad. I read about that seed vault and you're right. The principalities and powers that be could give not one but two poops about civilivation and life so long as their precious power over us remains in tact! Sad times, brother!
Hi, dear Mitchell. Found you on a Glucroft Google search. I'm concerned about the seeds, too. Love, Aunt Susan
As a participant in one of these projects. (There are by the way 1000s). I just wanted to let you know that as researchers we laugh at these store house projects. The delicate nature of genes. The mitochondria of cells. The microorganisms that live in tandem on a seeds surface are totally destroyed by freezing. ie - they won't grow.
We complain that America fails to innovate. Literally each day a researcher for the FDA creates a new bio engineered alfalfa seed or wheat seed that could grow in the harshest desert or the swampiest bog or in the coldest reaches of Siberia. These new plants can (and I don’t mean this as a joke) - actually end world hunger. But the government doesn’t know what to do with innovation and so the new seeds go to the freezer or to the Artic to sit and wait for their cell structure to breakdown and become useless. The innovation dies.
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