The Real News Now: Seven Congressman Deliver Seeds To Arctic Doomsday Vault over July 4th Weekend
http://welcometoafreeworld.blogspot.com/2010/07/7-congressman-deliver-seeds-to-arctic.html
That isn't a bad idea in any event. We -- humanity, our world -- came this close to losing emmer, the ancestral stock of reliably domesticated wheat that ever existed in the world, through over-reliance on wheat and related grains that were tinkered to meet specifications drawn up by modern proponents of the Green Revolution in agriculture and land management as well as earlier attempts to breed wheat and other grains to meet farmers' and consumers' specifications without consideration of the needs of the plants themselves.
Domesticated emmer (Triticum dicoccum), which is, genetically speaking, almost identical to its wild cousins and immediate ancestor (Triticum dicoccoides), and having much the same adaptive resilience and toughness under fire as they had, because it originally arose under the same conditions, is the strongest of all the varieties of wheat we have ever cultivated, the most resistant to insect pests, the most able to survive in the wild. Modern domesticated grains developed in the last century or two are, to be kind, very, very vulnerable to insect pests as well as microbial and fungal diseases, extremely picky when it comes to their nutritional requirements, unable to stand up to much in the way of harsh weather and climate shifts, and utterly dependent on us to not only keep them alive, but also enable them to propagate successfully. If we lose emmer, it wouldn't take much to lose wheat forever, because modern wheat has been bred so far out of true to meet our requirements that we can't even backbreed from it to get emmer any more. Fortunately, stands of emmer still exist as relict populations in mountainous regions in Europe and Asia, and some of these are being carefully conserved for the future by scientific agencies. Beards of emmer were probably among the first candidates for preservation in this doomsday vault.
There are many ways that both domesticated and wild plants can go extinct. In the case of wild plants, that happens all the time, sometimes because of human activities, such as habitat encroachment and destruction, but in other cases because of natural causes. The term background extinction rate, also known as "normal extinction rate," refers to the standard rate of extinction in earth’s geological and biological history before humans became a primary contributor to extinctions. This is primarily the pre-human extinction rates during periods in between major extinction events. Extinctions are a normal part of the evolutionary process, and the background extinction rate is a measurement of “how often” they naturally occur. Normal extinction rates are often used as a comparison to present day extinction rates, to illustrate the higher frequency of extinction today than in all periods of non-extinction events before it. (Background extinction rates have not remained constant, although changes are measured over geological time, covering millions of years.) Because extinction rates are increasing for wild plants and animals, we need to preserve the stock of existing species, whether in gene banks or as seed or frozen sperm and eggs, or both, to safeguard biodiversity in general and to be able to re-develop domesticated stocks from their wild ancestors in the event of a global disaster. In the case of domestic animals and plants, as well as bacteria we depend on for brewing, baking, and other food production activities, we want to preserve those stocks against immediate need in the aftermath of such a disaster.
Domestic plants and animals can become extinct through accumulated genetic damage due to inbreeding that makes them highly vulnerable to predators, parasites, and microbial diseases, or becoming so dependent on certain nutrient regimes and other requirements that their needs can't be met anywhere. They can die out due to climate shifts and other environmental changes that reduce the habitats where they can be grown or pastured or otherwise raised to zero. Wild plants and animals can become extinct due to habitat destruction, climate shifts, and a host of other causes; lately, humans have accounted for a rising number of those causes, which is why the background extinction rates have increased.
No matter what, we need doomsday vaults and genetic arks in many places. If conspiracies are behind their creation, let's hear it for conspiracies -- when, not "if," when the shit finally hits the fan (as it must at some point; just ask the dinosaurs! -- this is a violent and uncaring universe, and something always comes along to do the deed, whether climate shifts, asteroid impacts, nearby supernova explosions, or whatever, though we can now add such ugly possibilities as nuclear war to the list) -- then let's hear it for conspiracies.
nota bene: There'd better be many of those banks and arks scattered around the world, as few of them as possible known to the public or even anyone who doesn't have burn-before-reading clearance. For one thing, there are religious terrorists out there who would just love to destroy such arks and gene-banks, in order to hasten the end of the world or, more pragmatically, to terrorize the world. Threatening to do such a thing could end up holding the whole world hostage, depending on geopolitical realities and other conditions of the time. Destroying the one lone seed-bank/ark would be beyond terror. On the other hand, in the event of some natural event, say, the impact of a large meteorite, one over half a mile in diameter, if that meteorite impacted near or on that one lone seed bank, that's it, game over for agricultural humanity. And a seed bank won't do it for domesticated or wild animals, not to mention the microorganisms necessary to brewing beer, making bread or yogurt, and otherwise giving us more and richer foods than we could have had otherwise -- genetic arks are needed to preserve their lineages, in the form of preserved reproductive cells (sperm and eggs), in the case of animals and plants, preserved cells, in the case of benign bacteria, and the genetic codes for all of them preserved on computer disks and optical media. But to protect such seed-arks and gene-banks from being destroyed through terrorist attacks, nuclear war, asteroid impacts, etc. as well as the depredations of hungry people in the aftermath of a global disaster, there must be numerous such installations, scattered hell to breakfast across the world, their locations and even their very existence kept from the world by those who manage those facilities.* Which would entail conspiracies -- but in this case, very necessary ones, engaged in for the sake of all mankind, and all life on Earth. May Shub-Niggurath, Our Lady of Biodiversity, make it so.
*On the Moon and Mars would be damned good places to start. There are craters at the Moon's poles that are forever in darkness. Anything buried there wouldn't need refrigeration to stay frozen solid as long as was necessary. As for Mars, Mars is farther from the Sun than we are, the ground in its Arctic and Antarctic regions in permanent permafrost, more than cold enough for the purpose, never needing refrigeration. It's high time we began colonizing both bodies.
Click to viewThat isn't a bad idea in any event. We -- humanity, our world -- came this close to losing emmer, the ancestral stock of reliably domesticated wheat that ever existed in the world, through over-reliance on wheat and related grains that were tinkered to meet specifications drawn up by modern proponents of the Green Revolution in agriculture and land management as well as earlier attempts to breed wheat and other grains to meet farmers' and consumers' specifications without consideration of the needs of the plants themselves.
Domesticated emmer (Triticum dicoccum), which is, genetically speaking, almost identical to its wild cousins and immediate ancestor (Triticum dicoccoides), and having much the same adaptive resilience and toughness under fire as they had, because it originally arose under the same conditions, is the strongest of all the varieties of wheat we have ever cultivated, the most resistant to insect pests, the most able to survive in the wild. Modern domesticated grains developed in the last century or two are, to be kind, very, very vulnerable to insect pests as well as microbial and fungal diseases, extremely picky when it comes to their nutritional requirements, unable to stand up to much in the way of harsh weather and climate shifts, and utterly dependent on us to not only keep them alive, but also enable them to propagate successfully. If we lose emmer, it wouldn't take much to lose wheat forever, because modern wheat has been bred so far out of true to meet our requirements that we can't even backbreed from it to get emmer any more. Fortunately, stands of emmer still exist as relict populations in mountainous regions in Europe and Asia, and some of these are being carefully conserved for the future by scientific agencies. Beards of emmer were probably among the first candidates for preservation in this doomsday vault.
There are many ways that both domesticated and wild plants can go extinct. In the case of wild plants, that happens all the time, sometimes because of human activities, such as habitat encroachment and destruction, but in other cases because of natural causes. The term background extinction rate, also known as "normal extinction rate," refers to the standard rate of extinction in earth’s geological and biological history before humans became a primary contributor to extinctions. This is primarily the pre-human extinction rates during periods in between major extinction events. Extinctions are a normal part of the evolutionary process, and the background extinction rate is a measurement of “how often” they naturally occur. Normal extinction rates are often used as a comparison to present day extinction rates, to illustrate the higher frequency of extinction today than in all periods of non-extinction events before it. (Background extinction rates have not remained constant, although changes are measured over geological time, covering millions of years.) Because extinction rates are increasing for wild plants and animals, we need to preserve the stock of existing species, whether in gene banks or as seed or frozen sperm and eggs, or both, to safeguard biodiversity in general and to be able to re-develop domesticated stocks from their wild ancestors in the event of a global disaster. In the case of domestic animals and plants, as well as bacteria we depend on for brewing, baking, and other food production activities, we want to preserve those stocks against immediate need in the aftermath of such a disaster.
Domestic plants and animals can become extinct through accumulated genetic damage due to inbreeding that makes them highly vulnerable to predators, parasites, and microbial diseases, or becoming so dependent on certain nutrient regimes and other requirements that their needs can't be met anywhere. They can die out due to climate shifts and other environmental changes that reduce the habitats where they can be grown or pastured or otherwise raised to zero. Wild plants and animals can become extinct due to habitat destruction, climate shifts, and a host of other causes; lately, humans have accounted for a rising number of those causes, which is why the background extinction rates have increased.
No matter what, we need doomsday vaults and genetic arks in many places. If conspiracies are behind their creation, let's hear it for conspiracies -- when, not "if," when the shit finally hits the fan (as it must at some point; just ask the dinosaurs! -- this is a violent and uncaring universe, and something always comes along to do the deed, whether climate shifts, asteroid impacts, nearby supernova explosions, or whatever, though we can now add such ugly possibilities as nuclear war to the list) -- then let's hear it for conspiracies.
nota bene: There'd better be many of those banks and arks scattered around the world, as few of them as possible known to the public or even anyone who doesn't have burn-before-reading clearance. For one thing, there are religious terrorists out there who would just love to destroy such arks and gene-banks, in order to hasten the end of the world or, more pragmatically, to terrorize the world. Threatening to do such a thing could end up holding the whole world hostage, depending on geopolitical realities and other conditions of the time. Destroying the one lone seed-bank/ark would be beyond terror. On the other hand, in the event of some natural event, say, the impact of a large meteorite, one over half a mile in diameter, if that meteorite impacted near or on that one lone seed bank, that's it, game over for agricultural humanity. And a seed bank won't do it for domesticated or wild animals, not to mention the microorganisms necessary to brewing beer, making bread or yogurt, and otherwise giving us more and richer foods than we could have had otherwise -- genetic arks are needed to preserve their lineages, in the form of preserved reproductive cells (sperm and eggs), in the case of animals and plants, preserved cells, in the case of benign bacteria, and the genetic codes for all of them preserved on computer disks and optical media. But to protect such seed-arks and gene-banks from being destroyed through terrorist attacks, nuclear war, asteroid impacts, etc. as well as the depredations of hungry people in the aftermath of a global disaster, there must be numerous such installations, scattered hell to breakfast across the world, their locations and even their very existence kept from the world by those who manage those facilities.* Which would entail conspiracies -- but in this case, very necessary ones, engaged in for the sake of all mankind, and all life on Earth. May Shub-Niggurath, Our Lady of Biodiversity, make it so.
*On the Moon and Mars would be damned good places to start. There are craters at the Moon's poles that are forever in darkness. Anything buried there wouldn't need refrigeration to stay frozen solid as long as was necessary. As for Mars, Mars is farther from the Sun than we are, the ground in its Arctic and Antarctic regions in permanent permafrost, more than cold enough for the purpose, never needing refrigeration. It's high time we began colonizing both bodies.