The Vault Of Svalbard

Author : Michela Arturina Betta
Publisher : Austin Macauley Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1398410950
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Vault of Svalbard written by Michela Arturina Betta and published by Austin Macauley Publishers. This book was released on 2022-10-31 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The vault of Svalbard, the global seed bank, has been robbed and its irreplaceable content stolen. The theft becomes a priority case for the Global Agency for Informed Consent (GAIC). As the agency’s director, Achilles is in charge of the investigation into the disappearance of the seeds. Suspicions first fall on the Earth Movement and its music band Save the Earth, because of their radical position on climate change and food shortages. Unpredictable circumstances though take the investigation to the Sahara Desert controlled by the Confederation of the Tuaregs. The theft of the seeds is the first episode in a series of adventures that involve a mysterious small chamber hidden in the vault of Svalbard. When Achilles and its team eventually enter the chamber, its secret is finally unveiled. The chamber contains a jar full of water. Some say that it has healing powers. Others claim that it never evaporates hence one single drop could quench a person’s thirst forever. Is it is new water? Should the jar be removed from the vault? How can such water be protected from the grabbing hands of a thirsty humanity? Two dramatic events now happen. The seeds are returned undamaged and a moving glacier destroys the vault of Svalbard. Achilles suspects that somebody removed the jar before the destruction. But where is it now, the water jar? The mystery surrounding the precious water stretches from the North Pole to the South Sahara and is resolved in the last pages of the story.

Author : Cary Fowler
Publisher : Bioversity International
ISBN 13 : 9290435836
Total Pages : 38 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture written by Cary Fowler and published by Bioversity International. This book was released on 2003 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Cary Fowler
Publisher : Prospecta Press
ISBN 13 : 9781632261397
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Seeds on Ice: Svalbard and the Global Seed Vault written by Cary Fowler and published by Prospecta Press. This book was released on 2024-04-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable story of the Global Seed Vault--and the valiant effort to save the past and the future of agriculture: Now updated with a new chapter by the author and photos from recent improvements in the facilities. Closer to the North Pole than to the Arctic Circle, on an island in a remote Norwegian archipelago, lies a vast global seed bank buried within a frozen mountain. At the end of a 130-meter long tunnel chiseled out of solid stone is a room filled with humanity's precious treasure, the largest and most diverse seed collection ever assembled: more than a half billion seeds containing the world's most prized crops, a safeguard against catastrophic starvation. The Global Seed Vault, a visionary model of international collaboration, is the brainchild of Cary Fowler, renowned scientist, conservationist, and biodiversity advocate. In SEEDS ON ICE, Fowler tells for the first time the comprehensive inside story of how the "doomsday seed vault" came to be, while the breathtaking photographs offer a stunning guided tour not only of the private vault, but of the windswept beauty and majesty of Svalbard and the enchanting community of people in Longyearbyen. With growing evidence that unchecked climate change will seriously undermine food production and threaten the diversity of crops around the world, SEEDS ON ICE offers a personal and passionate reminder that we shouldn't take our reliance on the world of plants for granted--and that, in a very real sense, the future of the human race rides on this frozen and indispensable biodiversity.

Author : Cary Fowler
Publisher : Prospecta Press
ISBN 13 : 9781632260581
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.81/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Seeds on Ice written by Cary Fowler and published by Prospecta Press. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable story of the Global Seed Vault—and the valiant effort to save the past and the future of agriculture Closer to the North Pole than to the Arctic Circle, on an island in a remote Norwegian archipelago, lies a vast global seed bank buried within a frozen mountain. At the end of a 130-meter long tunnel chiseled out of solid stone is a room filled with humanity’s precious treasure, the largest and most diverse seed collection ever assembled: more than a half billion seeds containing the world’s most prized crops, a safeguard against catastrophic starvation. The Global Seed Vault, a visionary model of international collaboration, is the brainchild of Cary Fowler, renowned scientist, conservationist, and biodiversity advocate. In SEEDS ON ICE, Fowler tells for the first time the comprehensive inside story of how the “doomsday seed vault” came to be, while the breathtaking photographs offer a stunning guided tour not only of the private vault, but of the windswept beauty and majesty of Svalbard and the enchanting community of people in Longyearbyen. With growing evidence that unchecked climate change will seriously undermine food production and threaten the diversity of crops around the world, SEEDS ON ICE offers a personal and passionate reminder that we shouldn’t take our reliance on the world of plants for granted—and that, in a very real sense, the future of the human race rides on this frozen and indispensable biodiversity.

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789053308844
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Archiving Eden written by and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spurred Spurred by the impending completion of the Svarlbard Global Seed Vault, Archiving Eden explores the role of seed banks and their preservation efforts in the face of climate c hange, the extinction of natural species, and decreased agricultural diversity. Serving as a global botanical backup system, these privately and publicly funded institutions assure the opportunity for the reintroduction of species should a catastrophic event or civil strife affect a key ecosystem somewhere in the world. Since 2008, Dornith Doherty has worked in collaboration with renowned biologists at the most comprehensive international seed banks in the world: the United States D epartment of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service's National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Colorado, USA, the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK.; and PlantBank, Threatened Flora Centre, and Kings Park Botanic G ardens in Australia. Utilising the archives' on - site X - ray equipment that is routinely used for viability assessments of accessioned seeds, Doherty documents and subsequently collages the seeds and tissue samples stored in these crucial collections. The am azing visual power of magnified X - ray images, which springs from the technology's ability to record what is invisible to the human eye, illuminates her considerations not only of the complex philosophical, anthropological, and ecological issues surrounding the role of science and human agency in relation to gene banking, but also of the poetic questions about life and time on a macro and micro scale. Doherty is struck by the power of these tiny plantlets and seeds (many are the size of a grain of sand) to g enerate life and to endure the time span central to the process of seed banking, which seeks to make these sparks last for two hundred years or more. Use of the colour delft/indigo blue evokes references not only to the process of cryogenic preservation, c entral to the methodology of saving seeds, but also to the intersection of East and West, trade, cultural exchange, and migration. This tension between stillness and change reflects her focus on the elusive goal of stopping time in relation to living mater ials, which at some moment, we may all want to do.

Author : Cary Fowler
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 9780816511815
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Shattering written by Cary Fowler and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was through control of the shattering of wild seeds that humans first domesticated plants. Now control over those very plants threatens to shatter the world's food supply, as loss of genetic diversity sets the stage for widespread hunger. Large-scale agriculture has come to favor uniformity in food crops. More than 7,000 U.S. apple varieties once grew in American orchards; 6,000 of them are no longer available. Every broccoli variety offered through seed catalogs in 1900 has now disappeared. As the international genetics supply industry absorbs seed companies—with nearly one thousand takeovers since 1970—this trend toward uniformity seems likely to continue; and as third world agriculture is brought in line with international business interests, the gene pools of humanity's most basic foods are threatened. The consequences are more than culinary. Without the genetic diversity from which farmers traditionally breed for resistance to diseases, crops are more susceptible to the spread of pestilence. Tragedies like the Irish Potato Famine may be thought of today as ancient history; yet the U.S. corn blight of 1970 shows that technologically based agribusiness is a breeding ground for disaster. Shattering reviews the development of genetic diversity over 10,000 years of human agriculture, then exposes its loss in our lifetime at the hands of political and economic forces. The possibility of crisis is real; this book shows that it may not be too late to avert it.

Author : Kodoth Prabhakaran Nair
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030230376
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Combating Global Warming written by Kodoth Prabhakaran Nair and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-03 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book critically examines the environmental hazards posed by global warming with regard to future food security, which will depend on a combination of stresses, both biotic and abiotic, imposed by climate change; variability of weather within a growing season; and the development of cultivars that are more sensitive to different ambient conditions. Furthermore, the ability to develop effective adaptive strategies which allow these cultivars to express their genetic potential under changing climate conditions will be essential. In turn, the book investigates those plant species which are very closely related to field crops and have the potential to contribute beneficial traits for crop improvement, e.g. resistance to a wide range of biotic and abiotic stresses, enriching the gene pool, and ultimately leading to enhanced plant yield, known as “Crop Wild Relatives” (CWRs). CWRs hold tremendous potential to sustain and enhance global food security, contributing to human well-being. Accordingly, their development, characterization and conservation in crop breeding programs have assumed great practical importance./div Professor Kodoth Prabhakaran Nair is an internationally acclaimed agricultural scientist, with over three decades of experience in Europe, Africa and Asia, holding some of the most prestigious academic positions, including the National Chair of the Science Foundation, The Royal Society, Belgium. A Senior Fellow of the world renowned Alexander von Humboldt Research Foundation of The Federal Republic of Germany, he is best known, globally, for having developed a revolutionary soil management technique, known as "The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept", which, while questioning the scientific fallacies of the highly soil extractive farming, euphemistically known as the "green revolution", has opened up an alternative path for sensible and scientific soil management

Author : James Rollins
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061894699
Total Pages : 560 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Doomsday Key written by James Rollins and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-06-23 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “James Rollins knows adventure.” —Chicago Sun Times With The Doomsday Key—the latest Sigma Force blockbuster from New York Times bestselling author James Rollins—the critically acclaimed thrill-master continues to dazzle with an electrifying combination of history, religion, science, and adventure. The hero of Map of Bones, The Black Order, and other exceptional Rollins roller-coaster rides, Commander Pierce returns to solve a centuries-old secret, one coded in prophecies of doom—in a story that fans of Michael Crichton, Douglas Preston, and Indiana Jones will not be able to put down!

Author : Einar Sneve Martinussen
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1387042939
Total Pages : 50 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Explorations of the Seed Vault written by Einar Sneve Martinussen and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-06-30 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this colouring book you get to take a closer look at some of the seeds found in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The Seed Vault is located underground in the arctic permafrost on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. This is the world's largest secure seed storage facility and currently holds seeds from 5.499 species of crop plants. This collection is an important global collaboration for preserving the biodiversity and resilience of crops for the future. In this colouring book we look at a small, but significant, selection of these - showing seeds from both the most common species in the Seed Vault, and some of the least common ones. This book is a part of an experimental project about interpreting and communicating data from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The project is developed by Jørn Knutsen and Einar Sneve Martinussen from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, and the design studio Voy. More about the project at medium.com/explorations-of-the-seed-vault.

Author : Lauren Redniss
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0679644725
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Thunder & Lightning written by Lauren Redniss and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Note: This eBook file contains many richly detailed full-color images and makes use of unconventional page layouts. Because of this, readers will be required to zoom in on each page to read the text and see the finer detail of the artwork. [It has not been optimized for devices that display only in black and white.] From the National Book Award finalist Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive, comes a dazzling fusion of storytelling, visual art, and reportage that grapples with weather in all its dimensions: its danger and its beauty, why it happens and what it means. WINNER OF THE PEN/E. O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, AND SHELF AWARENESS Weather is the very air we breathe—it shapes our daily lives and alters the course of history. In Thunder & Lightning, Lauren Redniss tells the story of weather and humankind through the ages. This wide-ranging work roams from the driest desert on earth to a frigid island in the Arctic, from the Biblical flood to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Redniss visits the headquarters of the National Weather Service, recounts top-secret rainmaking operations during the Vietnam War, and examines the economic impact of disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on extensive research and countless interviews, she examines our own day and age, from our most personal decisions—Do I need an umbrella today?—to the awesome challenges we face with global climate change. Redniss produced each element of Thunder & Lightning: the text, the artwork, the covers, and every page in between. She created many of the images using the antiquated printmaking technique copper plate photogravure etching. She even designed the book’s typeface. The result is a book unlike any other: a spellbinding combination of storytelling, art, and science. Praise for Thunder & Lightning “[An] aesthetically charged and deeply researched account . . . a wild rainstorm of a book, pelting the reader with ideas and inspiration.”—Nature “A gorgeous and illuminating illustrated study of weather in all its tempestuous variety . . . Redniss’s combo of fact, folklore, and vibrant etched copperplate prints enthralls.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Eerily beautiful . . . Contains plenty of scientific explanation (including more than a few nods toward global warming), but also far-flung personal stories that illuminate the beauty, wonder and chaos inherent in the elements.”—The New York Times “Magical . . . Redniss has . . . shown us how human beings live with nature—fighting, coexisting, taming, predicting via leech barometer and radar and intuition.”—The New York Times Book Review “[A] twenty-first-century genius . . . The reader willing to put herself fully in Redniss’s hands will be rewarded with a delicious feeling of being enveloped by a phenomenon that eclipses the chiming trivialities of daily life.”—Elle “Redniss is one of the most creative science writers of our time—her combination of beautiful artwork, reporting, and poetic prose brings science to life in ways that words alone simply cannot.”—Rebecca Skloot “Redniss combines her own dual punch of expressive art and impressive erudition to give an entirely new take on all that happens above our heads.”—Adam Gopnik “A strange and wonderful thing, the work of a first-class mind that refuses to submit to any categories or precedent.”—Dave Eggers