Arctic Seed Vault Opens Doors for 100 Million Seeds

Arctic Seed Vault Opens Doors for 100 Million Seeds

Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds

Ceremony marking unprecedented effort to protect global agriculture draws world leaders and seeds from over 100 countries

LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 FEBRUARY 2008) – The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world.

The opening of the seed vault is part of an unprecedented effort to protect the planet’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The diversity of our crops is essential for food production, yet it is being lost. As well as protecting against the daily loss of diversity, the vault could also prove indispensable for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the case of a natural or man-made disaster.

Unique Building

The building of the vault itself has attracted much outside interest due to its location and its unusual engineering, security, and aesthetic features. Its engineering allows it to stay cool with only a single 10-kilowatt compressor, which is powered by locally generated electricity.

The vault consists of three highly secure rooms sitting at the end of a 125-metre tunnel blasted out of a mountain on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. The seeds will be stored at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and sealed in specially-designed four-ply foil packages. The packages are sealed inside boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault. Each vault is surrounded by frozen arctic permafrost, ensuring the continued viability of the seeds should the electricity supply fail. The low temperature and moisture level inside the vaults will ensure low metabolic activity, keeping the seeds viable. If properly stored and maintained at minus 20 degrees Celsius (about minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit), some seeds in the vault will be viable for a millennium or more. For example, barley can last 2000 years, wheat 1700 years, and sorghum almost 20,000 years.

Anyone seeking access to the seeds themselves will have to pass through four locked doors: the heavy steel entrance doors, a second door approximately 115 metres down the tunnel and finally the two keyed air-locked doors. Keys are coded to allow access to different levels of the facility. Not all keys will unlock all doors. Motion detectors are set up around the site. Boxes of seeds are scanned before entering the rooms of the seed vault.

  1. Vocabulaire
  1. Relier le vocabulaire tire de la ligne 1 à 18
  1. a seed vault1. un dépôt
  2. remote2. le blé
  3. a deposit3. une chamber forte semancière
  4. wheat4. des cultures vivrières
  5. cowpea5. quotidien
  6. sorghum6. le sorgho
  7. eggplant7. une catastrophe
  8. food crops8. une perte
  9. daily9. l’aubergine
  10. a loss10. le haricot à oeil noir
  11. A disaster11. éloigné/ isolé
  1. Trouver l’équivalent en anglais dans la deuxième partie du texte

  1. la localisation:
  2. l’ingénierie:
  3. rester froid:
  4. être stocké:
  5. être scellé:
  6. des étagères:
  7. l’alimentation électrique:
  8. une activité métabolique:
  9. le taux d’humidité:
  10. des portes en acier:
  11. des sas pneumatiques:
  12. des détecteurs de mouvement:

  1. Questions de compréhension:

Répondre aux questions suivantes en français

  1. Quel est le thème de cet article?
  1. Où se situe cette chambre semencière?
  1. Quand a-t-elle été inaugurée?
  1. Combien de graines ont-elles été reçues?
  1. En quoi cette chambre forte constitue-t-elle la collection la plus complète au monde?
  1. En quoi cette chambre forte pourrait-elle s’avérer essentielle?

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Vrai ou Faux. Justifier en utilisant la deuxième partie du texte

a. La chambre reste froide grâce à un réseau complexe de compresseurs de 10KW.VF

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b. La chambre se trouve au bout d’un long tunnel creusé en pleine montagne.VF

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c. Les semences sont stockées à des températures négatives.VF

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d. Un grave problème se poserait en cas de défaillance de l’alimentation électrique.VF

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e. Certaines semences peuvent survivre pendant des millénaires. VF

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  1. Traduction: Anyone seeking access …before entering the rooms of the seed vault.

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  1. Grammaire

A. Les noms composés

A partir des deux exemples du texte, rappelez la règle et formez d’autres noms composés:

Un compresseur de 10 KW= a 10 KW compressor

Un tunnel de 125 mètres = a 125- metre tunnel

- une femme de 20 ans:

- un projet de 5 ans:

- un dépôt de 100 millions de graines:

- un livre de 1000 pages:

- une maison de 7 pièces:

- une pause de 10 minutes:

- une grève de 3 jours: (a strike)

- une paye de 250 euros:

B. Compléter avec le bon temps: présent simple/ Be+Ing , prétérit, present perfect ou futur.

  1. Five years ago, world leaders ______(to start) working on this Seed Vault project.
  1. Today, world leaders ______(to inaugurate) the Seed vault.
  1. Seeds ______(to be) viable for a long time if they are kept properly.
  1. It‘s the first time engineers ______(to design) such a project.
  1. More seeds ______(to arrive) from hundreds of countries in the next few months.
  1. Every week, different countries ______(to send) unique varieties of seeds.
  1. Yesterday, Jack ______(to read) an article on the Seed Vault project.
  1. Listen to the news! Governments ______(to try) to save biodiversity by setting up a huge seed storage vault in Norway.
  1. La forme passive

Cf. leçon + exercices d’application

Repérez le sujet, les compléments et le temps de la phrase active puis transformez les phrases suivantes à la voie passive.

  1. World governments send seeds to the Vault every month.

Seeds ______by world governments.

  1. Today, world leaders are inaugurating the Seed Vault.

Today, the Seed Vault ______by world leaders.

  1. Scientists will store the seeds at – 18°C.

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  1. Engineers installed motion detectors everywhere.

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  1. Employees scan seed boxes automatically.

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  1. Ecologists welcomed the project.

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  1. Expression

What is your opinion aboutthe Seed Vault project? Do you also think that our biodiversity is being threatened? Can you see other solutions?

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