[MPWG] Doomsday vault to hold 2 million seeds - newspaper article FYI

[Cafesombra at aol.com]

Saving genetic material is so important, and can be a very delicate  
operation requiring appropriate super-specialized skills and  technologies (although 
you've got to admire the survival of a 2000-yr-old  date seed...) 
 
I do think though that we need to maintain a balanced perspective and  
reflect upon the need for genetic material repositories in the "developing"  south.  
To my knowlegde (and perhaps this has changed and I'm unaware of  new 
developments, but,) a majority of seed banks are located in the developed  north, 
though they may contain quite a bit of genetic information from the  south.  It's 
true that society needs to move ahead with the best  available technologies 
in regard to genetic resource preservation, and the  developed north is frankly 
where the technology, money, and brainpower is  (by brainpower I mean trained 
specialists).  But my question is, when  are some resources going to head 
south to fund this type of  thing?  Isn't it about time?  Especially if we are 
going to throw the  word "doomsday" around, perhaps we should either consider 
moving to Norway, or,  begin spreading things around in a bit more balanced way.
 
I imagine if that ancient / newborn Judean date tree were able to say  
something about this it might tell us to forget the doomsday bit...  or as  Bill 
McKibben wrote, "I for one intend to go out  kicking..."
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