Posted by feww on February 29, 2008
Posted in Emergency Warning, Tourism, Travel, new zealand | Comments Off
Posted by feww on February 26, 2008
Bill Gates “donated” $30m (Norway forked out $9m) for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, aka the ‘Doomsday Vault,’ a seed bank carved into the permafrost layer of a remote Arctic mountain in Longyearbyen.
Situated on the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, The vault is less than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the North Pole. The vault would be inaugurated today by European Commission President Barroso and the environmentalist Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Mata among other celebrities.
Protected by towering walls of reinforced concrete and armored doors equipped with electronic motion sensor security alarm, the vault’s three airtight chambers have enough room to hold duplicate samples from world’s 1,400 plus existing seed banks.
Doomsday Vault (Image Credit: AFP)
The “concrete cocoon” can withstand nuclear missile attacks or diving passenger jets!
So you have nothing to worry about. In case of Armageddon, total ecosystems collapse, or global deluge, if you happen to be one of the very few ‘lucky’ survivors, here’s what you should do:
1. Fly to Norway.
2. Find a boat heading to Svalbard archipelago.
3. Take a bus to the city of Longyearbyen.
4. Ask Direction to the Arctic mountain where Svalbard Global Seed Vault is situated.
5. Call Agnar, Niklas, Vidor, or his brother Ragnar on their cell phone and ask them to meet you at the vault’s entrance. [They are the only ones who know the combination to the vault. If they are deceased, ask local phone directory for details of their next of kin. Don't hang up until you get an answer!]
6. Take the good seed samples out of the vault [good seeds = the ones that would germinate!]
7. Leave Svalbard archipelago [it's too cold to grow anything there.] Make sure the seed samples are kept dry and cool throughout your journey.
8. Do not eat the seeds, even if you are starved!
9. Find a suitable plot of land somewhere in the world with enough topsoil and water.
10. Plant the seeds and watch mother nature doing her miracle!
Before you do all of that, be sure to learn fluent Norwegian!
It’s really that easy!
Photo Credit: Mari Tefre/Global Crop Diversity Trust
Related Links:
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don’t
Posted in Armageddon, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Doomsday Vault, Global Warming, Nobel Prize, Norway, Svalbard, Travel, Wangari Mata, energy, environment, food, global deluge, health, politics, seeds | Tagged: Bill Gates, Nobel Prize, Norwegian language, Postdiluvian Catastrophes, seeds, top security vault | No Comments »
Posted by feww on February 25, 2008
Human activities such as settlement, railroad, industry, farming and ranching has caused a huge increase in the dust levels in the air, according to a report by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
A dusty scene near Canyonlands in Utah. Dust in the West has increased by 500 percent since the 1800s. [Photo Credit: Jason C. Neff, University of Colorado at Boulder. NO copy restriction. Source: eurekalert ]
“The chemical composition of the dust is changing. And it’s changing in a way that we actually see the byproducts of both industrial activity and agricultural activities in the dust. We see elevated phosphorous and we see elevated nitrogen in these lake sediments,” said Neff of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who led the study.
According to another study, published in January, human-caused climate change has altered river flows, snow pack and air temperatures.
“The dust we see in these lakes is the same dust that causes earlier spring snowmelt here, so we can now definitively say that humans are in large part responsible for this melt,” said Neff.
Read more …
Posted in Climate Change, Human-induced natural catastrophes, agriculture, cropland, dust bowl, grassland, land use, soil, topsoil | No Comments »
Posted by feww on February 24, 2008
An earthquake caused by coal mining shook the Saarland region of Germany on the French border Saturday. Measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale, the earthquake caused damage to buildings and cut off the electricity supply to the area. Original report
Posted in Human-enhanced natural catastrophes, Human-induced natural catastrophes, coal mining, dirty energy, earthquake, electricity, germany | No Comments »
Posted by edro on February 19, 2008
“A [farmer] took up land [in Saskatchewan], dug a cellar and built a frame house on top of it; ploughed up the prairie and grew wheat and oats. After 20 years he decided the country was no good for farming, for eight feet of his soil had gone and he had to climb up into his house.” —Richard St, Barbe Baker, My Life, My Trees [Quoted by John Jeavons in How to Grow More Vegetables]
Once A Forest! Photo credit: UNEP
Measuring an average of about 6.6 inches (16.76 centimeters) deep, topsoil is the upper layer of earth’s crust. Topsoil comprises of a mix of humus, mineral and composted materials giving rise to most of the soil’s biological activity and supplying nutrients to plants and therefore to animals. After air and water, topsoil is Earth’s most vital resource.
Table TS1. Topsoil: Wild Facts
Note: The average bulk density of topsoil is calculated at about 1.4 gcm-3
Source: Topsoil
Posted in Earth, agriculture, erosion, food, land, topsoil | No Comments »
Posted by edro on February 19, 2008
[New Zealand Poisoning Syndrome (NZPS), Health Bulletin # 4. Sewage contaminated beaches, Feb. 16, 2008]
Owhiro Bay beach was finally closed by Wellington City Council. Visitors are warned to stay clear of the sewage polluted water. Sewage and other microbiological pollution levels are so high they would cause a serious health hazard.
The presence of enterococci in the water makes it extremely dangerous for swimming or recreational contact, as cuts and skin lesions could become infected.
Visitors are warned against consuming fish and other marine animals caught in New Zealand’s contaminated waters. Original report
