This glittering concrete monolith is a lot like that still-sealed emergency survival kit languishing in your basement since 1999: Reassuring to have around, but a bummer when you actually have to use it. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault—better known by its cute nickname, the "Doomsday Vault"—was established on this far-northern Norwegian isle in 2008 to archive frozen genetic copies of seeds already housed in seed banks around the world: a backup of all the backups. Kept at minus 0.4 degrees F within the seed vault, precious botanicals from food to fibers to flowers are safe from disasters, even of the apocalyptic variety. Lucky us: It"ll take a healthy diet of veggies to fight off the zombies.
Even nature needs a backup plan…
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Spring blooms in the Netherlands
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Füzér Castle in the Zemplén Mountains, Hungary
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Dolomites
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Wild scene on the Merced River
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Perfect timing
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Staring down winter
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Welcome to Scotland s garden
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Mont-Saint-Michel
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Spring comes to the Diablo foothills
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An Alpine fairy-tale castle
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Kissing Day
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Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico
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Alam-Pedja Nature Reserve, Estonia
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Up in the Highlands
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Old Town Quito
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Crimson-rumped toucanet in the Refugio Paz de Las Aves, Ecuador
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International Beaver Day
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World Turtle Day
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Fly me to the moon
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The tallest animal in the world on the longest day of the year
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Arambol Beach, Goa, India
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‘Stepping’ into Black History Month
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A grand event
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Veterans Day
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In Sicily, history is everywhere
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Joan charges Riverside Park
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Opt outside today
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Kelp buddies
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Paradise, found
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San Francisco’s City Hall illuminated by the iconic colors of Pride