Even nature needs a backup plan… Jan 30, 2021

Even nature needs a backup plan…

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.

© Pal Hermansen/Minden Pictures

palette

Today in History

Jan 30, 2018Watson Lake in Granite Dells, Arizona
Jan 30, 2019Embracing the cold
Jan 30, 2020The Pearl of Siberia
Jan 30, 2022Halo around the sun
Jan 30, 2023Ice and Snow Sailing World Championships
Jan 30, 2024Aýna, Albacete, Spain
Jan 30, 2025La Brecha de Rolando (Rolands Breach), Spain

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Feb 4, 2020Rock of ages
Aug 9, 2023International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples
Jan 15, 2025Anniversary of the British Museum
May 24, 2025European Day of Parks
Mar 5, 2022Mont-Saint-Michel
Dec 4, 2024Wildlife Conservation Day
Apr 29, 2019New beginnings
May 25, 2018Cheers! It’s National Wine Day
Jul 17, 2019Nomads of the Gobi
Sep 20, 2021Birds of a feather flocking together
Jun 4, 2025The beach at Cala Luna, Sardinia, Italy
Nov 16, 2021Glenfinnan Viaduct
Nov 15, 2019Mesmerizing murmuration
Mar 25, 2021There was gold in them there hills…
Oct 14, 2022Río Arazas in Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, Spain
Apr 10, 2022Siblings Day
Mar 27, 2020Pretty in pink, and purple, and red…
Sep 4, 2020A bull, some flowers, and a stratovolcano
Apr 10, 2021Bear cubs roughhouse on Siblings Day
Mar 21, 2018Celebrating the International Day of Forests
Jun 23, 2020Flowers by the sea
Oct 26, 2025National Pumpkin Day
Nov 14, 2020Decorating for Diwali
Nov 25, 2025Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy
Jun 30, 2019San Francisco’s City Hall illuminated by the iconic colors of Pride
Dec 13, 2022Hallstatt, Austria
Dec 14, 2021American robin
Mar 7, 2021Finding a balance between wetlands and water treatment
Sep 12, 2021A grand event
Nov 22, 2022Red fox in the Netherlands