Doomsday Arctic Seed Vault Gets Deposit of 30,000 New Samples

FILE PHOTO: Television crews stand outside the Global Seed Vault before the opening ceremony in Longyearbyen February 26, 2008.  REUTERS/Bob Strong
FILE PHOTO: Television crews stand outside the Global Seed Vault before the opening ceremony in Longyearbyen February 26, 2008. REUTERS/Bob Strong
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Doomsday Arctic Seed Vault Gets Deposit of 30,000 New Samples

FILE PHOTO: Television crews stand outside the Global Seed Vault before the opening ceremony in Longyearbyen February 26, 2008.  REUTERS/Bob Strong
FILE PHOTO: Television crews stand outside the Global Seed Vault before the opening ceremony in Longyearbyen February 26, 2008. REUTERS/Bob Strong

An Arctic seed vault on Norway's Spitsbergen island has received new samples from the largest number of depositors since 2020, reflecting fear about the threat of conflict and climate change to food security, a custodian of the facility said on Wednesday.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set deep inside a mountain to withstand disasters from nuclear war to global warming, was launched in 2008 as a backup for the world's gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.
Billed as a doomsday vault protected by permafrost, the deposit has received samples from across the world, and played a leading role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria.
"Climate change and conflict threaten infrastructure and impact food security for over 700 million people in more than 75 countries worldwide," Reuters quoted Executive Director Stefan Schmitz of the Crop Trust as saying in a statement.
Among the new deposits, Bolivia's first contribution to the vault was made by the 400-year-old Universidad Mayor Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, and assembled by some 125 farming families from local communities.
"This deposit goes beyond conserving crops; it's about protecting our culture," the project coordinator of the Norway-funded Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods, and Development in Bolivia said in a statement.
Chad, another newcomer, deposited 1,145 samples of sesame, rice, maize and sorghum - all adapted to the country's climate and crucial for developing crops that can withstand rising temperatures and erratic rainfall.
The total of more than 30,000 new samples from 21 countries, also included seeds of vegetables, legumes and herbs from the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Located on a sparsely populated island halfway between mainland Europe and the North Pole, the vault's chambers are only opened two or three times a year to limit exposure to the outside world.



Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again

Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again
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Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again

Aloha, Bavaria! Munich Surfers Riding Wild River Wave Again

Surfing enthusiasts have cheered the reopening of a beloved whitewater site in downtown Munich, the German city better known for partying at Oktoberfest than splashing in the waves.

The Eisbach ("ice brook") standing wave in the city's Englischer Garten park was closed after tragedy struck in April when a 33-year-old woman drowned during a nighttime winter surf.

After a safety review and a petition to keep it open, the site -- just a stone's throw from an art museum and shopping streets -- was reopened by authorities in recent weeks.

Putting on a wetsuit and taking a board out of its bag after a day's work, Moritz, 43, said he's a regular at the surf spot on an arm of the Isar river.

"It's amazing. A wave right in the city center is something very special," he said. "I missed it during the closure."

Nearby, surfers performed tricks with virtuosity on the powerful wave, formed by the presence of rocks on the riverbed near a bridge.

"It's completely different from the ocean," said Moritz.

"Even if you know how to surf very well in the sea, you don't necessarily know how to do it here where the water comes from the front and not from behind."

Another surfer, Irina, 34, said she tries to come three times a week, "before work, because it gives you energy".

She finds "the power of the wave is good" and said she feels safe at this unique spot, even if "there are rocks at the bottom and you have to be a little careful when you fall".

A German surfer lost her life during a night session in April after being trapped underwater for nearly 30 minutes, her leash caught on an unidentified object.

Friends and emergency services rushed to help her, but she died a week after her accident.

An investigation found no safety breaches on the part of the city or state, which had always warned surfers to attempt the challenge "at their own risk".

New guidelines have, however, been issued: night surfing is banned between 10:00 pm and 5:30 am, and the minimum age for braving the wave is 14.

Surfers must also use a system that allows their leash to be detached in case of emergency.

These rules are "largely reasonable", said Franz Fasel, head of the local surfers' association IGSM, who said between 3,000 and 5,000 local surfers use the Eisbach site.

"Surfing is simply part of the lifestyle in Munich," he said. "Not just for the surfers themselves, but also for the city's image."

It was not always this way. In the past, the Eisbach wave was entirely natural and surfable only occasionally, for example, when gravel accumulated in the riverbed.

Surfers took matters into their own hands in the 1980s, installing a river crossing and adding objects to improve the wave, not all well received by the authorities.

The site is now promoted by the tourist office as one of Munich's top attractions.

Bavaria's state premier Markus Soeder proudly declared during a recent visit that "Munich is a surfer's paradise" and Bavaria "a bit like the California of Germany".