Science Daily News reports on the building of a giant seed vault in Norway to protect future generations from losing a food source.
The Norwegian government has revealed the architectural design for the Svalbard International Seed Vault, to be carved deep into frozen rock on an island not far from the North Pole. The entrance to the “fail-safe” seed vault will “gleam like a gem in the midnight sun,” signaling a priceless treasure within: seed samples of nearly every food crop of every country. The vault is designed to protect the agricultural heritage of humankind — the seeds essential to agriculture of every nation.
The description of the effort undertaken and researched in order to protect these seeds that may prove so valuable to future generations is amazing. The site was chosen, in part, because the ground is perpetually frozen, providing natural back-up refrigeration that would preserve the seeds should electricity fail. Yet, even here, project architects had to consider how to offset the potential impacts of climate change.
The researchers studied all the possible worst-case scenarios of global warming. With rising temperatures, the vault will be located above any potential rising sea levels, some 130 meters above current sea levels. This puts it well above a seven meter rise from the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet, and a 61 meter rise if Antarctica melted completely.
To ensure the rising external air temperatures will have no impact on the internal temperatures, they are planning a 120 meter deep entry tunnel past the permafrost layers and creating two large chambers to hold more than 3 million seed samples.
Wow!
What Does a Seed Vault Have To Do With Blogging?
Imagine the time and effort on research the scientists have put into this project. They aren’t thinking about today, tomorrow, or even next year. They are building based upon projections and assumptions for the next 50, 100, 200 years and more into the future.
They aren’t even taking for granted the predictions for the planet’s conditions scientists are promoting today. They are saying “if this happens, the seeds will be protected, but if that happens, we’ll do this. But if this happens over here, we’ve got that covered, too.”
They are covering all their bases from every angle they can come up with.
When was the last time you did that on your blog?
Did you even plan your blog? Did you just wake up one day and decide to blog? To start expressing your thoughts, opinions, expertise, and voice publicly? Or did you have a plan?
Now that you are blogging, have you taken a look at your plan? Or do you even have one?
Have you given any thought to the future of your blog and blogging? What are the predictions ahead for blogging and how do they impact your blog?
Most bloggers tend to think today or next week, not next month or next year.
If you were thinking like these scientists, how would your blog change? What are the steps you would take if your blog plan included projects and forecasts for three months, six months, one year, two years, five years, or more from now? If you were building a blog today with a 10 year forecast, what would your blog plan look like?
Would it change how you blog?
Lorelle VanFossen blogs about blogging and WordPress on Lorelle on WordPress, and is a long time support volunteer for WordPress. Lorelle travels too much and reports about life on the road in Taking Your Camera on the Road and covers family history and genealogy on Lorelle’s Family History, teaches and presents workshops and programs, and writes for many blogs, ezines, and magazines.
