Under Mickey's explanation, the group came to this seed bank, which is about three kilometers away from the city.
The seed bank stands halfway up the Svalbard Mountains opposite Svalbard Airport, and it's sci-fi.
The shape of the seed vault door is similar to the corner of the alien spacecraft that invaded Earth in the American sci-fi blockbuster "Independence Day".
Led by Mickey, the group walked along a winding road to the seed storehouse.
After getting closer, Yang Jing felt the grandeur of this seed bank.
The exposed section of the reinforced concrete building outside the mountain is just the gate of the seed bank.
The height of this section of the building is more than 12 meters, and the width is about 4 meters, and a heavy gate divides the inner and outer worlds into two parts.
At the entrance of the gate, there is a statue of a polar bear.
Gege asked Mikey curiously, "Why is there a statue of a polar bear erected here?"
” Mickey laughed, "There's an interesting story about the statue of a polar bear erected here.
At that time, the Norwegian government planned to build a seed bank here, but it was a place for polar bears.
In the vicinity of this mountain and on this mountain, there are many polar bears roaming every day, and in the face of these tough polar bears, the builders can only use grace and power, and they are fed and guarded with guns, so that they can be safe, and finally this seed bank is repaired.
Then, when the seed bank was repaired, these polar bears became the natural defenders of the seed bank, and in order to show gratitude to the polar bears, the Norwegian government erected such a statue of the polar bear at the entrance of the seed bank. ” Everyone in the group smiled.
"The seed bank is built halfway up the mountain at an altitude of 130 meters, which is high enough to ensure that even in the event of a nuclear war in the future, all the world's glaciers will melt and the sea will not be able to flood it.
Moreover, it is located in a high latitude area, which is cold all year round, and the seed bank is built in the permafrost zone, so even if the air conditioning equipment inside is completely failed, it can be in a state of low temperature all year round.
Seeds of important crops such as wheat, barley and peas can last up to 1,000 years, while sorghum seeds, which have the longest viability, can last for about 1.95 million years. ” Yang Jing asked curiously, "What kind of structure is this?"
” Mickey shook his head and said, "I haven't been in it either, but I've heard people talk about the structure inside."
The seed bank is more than 100 meters deep into the mountain and is made entirely of reinforced concrete up to one meter thick.
At the heart of the passage are three separate cold rooms side by side, each 27 meters long, 95 meters wide and 5 meters high, at the end of the passageway.
The metal doors of each cold room are covered with frost. ” "At the moment, only one of the three cold rooms is in use, and the other two are empty.
But this is the same cold room, which is also equipped with three keys, one of which is worn by the head of the seed store, one is in the hands of the Norwegian government, and the remaining key is not known to be worn by whom.
I am afraid that only the Norwegian government knows the true identity of the wearer of the last key.
Only when all three keys are together can the cold compartment be opened. ” Chris laughed, "It's as safe as the vaults at Fort Knox." ” Mickey nodded and said, "Almost, even if it's not as good as the vault in Fort Knox, it's probably not much worse."
The seed bank was built to withstand a nuclear bombardment and an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale.
I don't know if the atomic bomb will be able to withstand it, but what I do know is that a week before the seed bank was completed, there was an earthquake measuring 62 on the Richter scale, and many buildings in Longyearbyen's city collapsed, but nothing happened here. ” Chris nodded and said, "This seed bank is really sturdy. ” "That's natural, this seed bank is not only capable of resisting external forces, but also absolutely commendable in terms of internal security," Mikey said.
From the entrance to the three cold rooms in the core area, in the middle is a hundred meters long tunnel, there are five explosion-proof steel doors inside, without the corresponding key and password, outsiders don't even want to break through there violently.
And inside this passage, there are people patrolling 24 hours a day with guns.
Especially the three cold rooms in the core area, it is impossible for outsiders to enter. ” After a pause, Mickey said with a smile: "Less than half a month after the seed bank was built, Norway's Crown Prince Magnus came here in person and offered to take a look at the cold room in the core area, but he was refused.
Some time later, former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter also came to visit the seed storehouse, and he also wanted to visit the cold room in the core area, but he was also closed. ” Gege asked in surprise, "The security here is so strict?"
” "Well, that's it.
After all, this is the last hope of mankind, and it is not something that anyone can enter casually.
There is a saying in our country that everyone agrees on, and that is 'humanity will not perish, and it is up to the rest of the story'.
More than 800,000 plant seeds are now stored here, and the seeds of genetically modified plants are not stored here, which guarantees the purity of the species.
Therefore, this is a very important place for all mankind, and it is only natural that the security is so tight. ” Yang Jing asked, "Then have the seeds stored here ever been useful?"
” "Yes."
"The Syrian civil war in September 2015 killed hundreds of thousands of people, forced some 11 million people to become refugees, and the main seed bank in the Middle East in Aleppo was destroyed and unusable.
The civil war in Syria has forced the Middle Easterners to remove seeds from the 'doomsday seed bank' for the first time.
The Middle Easterners applied first, and when the application was approved, nearly 130 boxes of the 325 boxes of 1.16 million crop seed backups that had been deposited here were taken out of the place.
This is the first time since the establishment of the World Seed Bank. ” Mikey shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands, "See, this is the greatness of this seed bank!"
” The group stood in front of the seed store, across the hill from Svalbard Airport, and to the east of the airport was the bay.
Longyearbyen is located southeast of the seed bank, and many residents and tourists are moving around the town.
A female bear with two cubs appeared on the top of the hill above the seed bank, probably just having a full meal, and the girl just stood on the top of the hill and watched these people silently, then shook her head and turned away, and the two cubs behind her ass happily followed her mother and ran happily.
The glacier on the other side of the bay farther away glows in an almost golden color in the sunlight, and the blue sky and the sea make for a scenery that is even more beautiful than a painting.
The air was filled with the smell of the sea, mixed with the scent of flowers and plants.
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Although it is already within the Arctic Circle, there are still tenacious plants that take advantage of the warm and short two or three months of summer to grow, bloom and bear fruit.
In that sense, the city is anything but glorious.
Bad weather, inconvenient traffic.
Even food is not self-sufficient, so it can only be transported from the outside.
But it is such a small city, but it contains a kind of greatness.
That's right, it's because of the existence of this "doomsday seed bank" that makes this northernmost city in the world great.
Maybe in the future, there will be a nuclear war like the movie "Terminator" on Earth, or the kind of biochemical war like the movie "Resident Evil", or a disaster like "The Day After Tomorrow" or even "2012".
In the event that humanity wants to get back on its feet after such a catastrophe, this seed bank hidden deep in the mountains and the seed bank that is currently being secretly built by other countries will become the last hope of mankind.
With her small body, this city stubbornly bears the last hope of humanity in the world, and this alone is enough to be called "great".
As if sensing Yang Jing's thoughts, Da Bai came over, stretched out his tongue and licked Yang Jing's hand, licking Yang Jing and laughing, the idea that Da Bai passed was very clear - there is still me here, I will guard this city.
At this time, a group of tourists came up from the bottom of the mountain, some of them large and small, and it seemed as if they were a big family coming out to play.
Of course, these people are also led by a local guide.
Miki and the tour guide obviously knew each other very well, and after the two of them said hello and exchanged a few words, Mikey took Yang Jing and them out of the door of the seed store.
Walking down the mountain, Mickey said: "Actually, in Longyearbyen, there is not only the seed bank we just saw, but also on this mountain and the inevitable mountain, there are two seed banks, one is the seed bank built by the Norwegian government commissioned by Iceland, and the other is the Norwegian seed bank built by the Norwegian government itself.
However, the two seed banks are not as large and are stockpiled with plant seeds owned by Iceland and Norway. ” In less than two hours, the group walked around the small city.
Led by Mikey, the group went to a restaurant on the edge of the bay for dinner.
The arrival of Dabai made the owner of the restaurant very happy, and it was obvious that the owner watched yesterday's live TV.
However, because there were many people dining in the restaurant, Yang Jing and his party were guided to eat in a separate room on the east side of the restaurant.
No matter how much the restaurant owner likes Dabai, he will not let Dabai appear in the restaurant.
The lunch was hearty, mostly local specialties, such as whale meat and seal meat.
It is worth mentioning that when Yang Jing learned that there were fresh seals here, Yang Jing directly spent two thousand dollars to buy a freshly caught seal, and then pushed it to the beach with a small cart, leaving Da Bai alone to enjoy this seal - Da Bai's meal was very bloody, of course it couldn't eat in this separate room, otherwise Yang Jing and they would also eat.
Although the Great White likes to eat meat, it prefers to eat the fat of seals.
Especially at the end of summer, many times when polar bears hunt seals, they don't eat the meat at all, but only the fat in it.
As for the meat left over from the seals, it is cheaper than the arctic foxes that follow the polar bears