Kind: captions
Language: en
[Applause]
so this is like the world's most
important freezer it is
really the most important room in the
world someone has said these are pretty
big claims for a place located just
1,300 km or 800 mil from the North Pole
but then this is no ordinary place it's
the sard global seed Vault well actually
this this is just its front door inside
the seed Vault are a series of tunnels
it's not actually that cold right here
but as we go deeper it is only going to
get
colder this is bente you're an engineer
bente yes I am you're going to show us
where to go yeah fantastic door how many
doors are there uh 1 two three four five
doors until we are into the secret room
five doors to the secret
room wo that's what I'm talking
about these are the lengths of tunnel
that take you down into the seed Vault
this facility was built to last around
200 years and withstand earthquakes and
explosions it was placed on the side of
a mountain so even if all the ice on
Earth melts it will still be above sea
level there are three separate Vault
rooms where seeds are stored but only
one of them is in use right now and it's
buried over 120 M from the front door
the whole point of putting the Vault so
deep in this mountain is to put it
within permafrost so all around me the
Earth naturally stays around -4 or -5
all year round and that way if something
did happen and the coolant stopped
flowing here there was no power then
well Behind These doors it would still
remain probably you know -4 or -5 cels
forever assuming of course global
temperatures don't rise that much this
place is sometimes called the Doomsday
Vault because even in a worst case
scenario it should preserve the
diversity of the world's food crops
really in the
mountain surrounded by
permafrost and uh here is a cross tunnel
that leads to three Vault doors Vault
number one is up there Vault number two
and this is the one that's actually
being used and then Vault number
three it's pretty amazing to look up and
see ice covered ceilings and walls
everywhere This fallar Global seed Vault
Works essentially like a bank vault it's
it's almost yeah because the seeds lay
in the boxes like this these boxes are
sealed when they come to swo and and
none of us are uh can open it we we put
it to the security system at the airport
just to check that it isn't any
explosives or or anything it is but it
work it works like a Bank box so we
can't we can't open this only the
depositor can open and take out their
seeds so you don't open any of the seeds
any of the boxes that come here no well
how do you know that people are really
depositing the seeds like barley that
they say they are and not other things
uh just because they have signed a
contract that says it so we we can't be
sure but of course we trust them would
there be uh seeds for some crops that
people might consider illicit like
marijuana that is said that that sh
shall not be in here no no drugs and
also no Gene modified material no
genetically modified seeds go in here
yeah Norway has asked for that not
genetical material is kept in here are
there any particularly strange crops has
anyone deposited anything that's really
odd or weird
uh no nothing weird is is in here but we
have uh we have we get some questions
from people wants to put in their own uh
private seeds I also have had had
letters from men wanting to put their
Gene material in here that is really
strange and and we don't answer those
this is the door to the Vault and behind
here there are nearly a million
different varieties of seeds from all
over the world kept at - 18°
c you know how I can tell that it's -
18° in here you can actually feel feel
the moisture in your nose freeze so your
nostrils get all stiff yeah and I see
behind you we have some Canadian seeds
which is exciting for me because I am
Canadian so what sort of things do we
have from Canada I'm really not not sure
because uh this box uh on the outside
doesn't tell what is in it but these
these numbers here uh are connected to a
database on the internet so you can go
in there afterwards there you go go find
out you find out what has Canada got
stored in the seed Vault what are we
looking at right here it's like a bank
vault except everything that you've put
in there is publicly available it
is these are the coolest boxes I think
they are from North
Korea oh my goodness handmade boxes they
look like they come from the 1960s or
something do you think yeah they do they
have been they built them specially yeah
they they built them specially because
they got the measurements of how big
should the boxes be and these are are
built exactly on those measurements and
here you see in North Korea is placed on
the same shelves as the u USA is just on
the back there oh it's on the back side
and you have South Korea just on the
back so here they are like in uh small
United Nations deep in the mountains of
[Laughter]
swart so these are the last few bear
shelves in Vault 2 once the other two
vaults are full there will be around
three 3 million different species of
plants stored here with over 500 seeds
per sample so one day there may be over
a billion seeds stored inside this
mountain representing the vast majority
of Earth's agricultural diversity and
you don't know today what kind of of of
seeds that you can grow in 20 30 40
years from now because of the climate
change perhaps you you have to use
another type of of seed uh 30 years from
now that can handle warmer climate drier
climate wetter climate whatever is going
to to happen so so that is why it's so
important to have a backup of all these
seeds so that you are sure that you can
also grow the food we need in for the
next Generations to come but this isn't
the only seed bank on Earth there are
around 1,700 other genan banks around
the world run by different countries and
organizations and at a cost of $9
million to build the fallard seed Vault
and millions more to run it it's worth
asking whether this is a costly
redundancy or a valuable insurance
policy and perhaps the best people to
answer this question are the syrians who
last year were the first to make a
withdrawal from the seed Vault the genan
bank in Alin Syria is now out of order
it's been bombed so uh onethird of the
material that is kept in here is now uh
taken down to Morocco and and Lebanon
and this is some of the material that
now has been returned so to get the the
material going again that's why there's
that's why why it's empty will those
seeds actually be used to grow crops
yeah they will yeah over the last 13,000
years we have cultivated millions of
species of plants the Agricultural
Revolution underpinned the technological
and population explosions that made our
modern lives possible the risk of a real
doomsday scenario is incredibly remote
but whatever happens thanks to this
Outpost at the top of the world at least
our our seeds are
safe hey I'm currently on a train
traveling from Washington DC to New York
City so I can't talk too loud and
actually after Norway I went to Soul
South Korea Los Angeles Boston New York
and Washington so it's been some crazy
travels for me and on all of these
travels I've been listening to Audi
books from audible who also support
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so if you're at all interested in
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you have to read it or listen to it to
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so I really want to thank Audible for
supporting me and helping me go to all
these amazing places and I want to thank
you for watching