"Doomsday" Seed Vault Opened

[Rappy Veteran]

Professor Tore Skroppa, director of the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, casts his mind back to his garden north of the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

We find ourselves sitting next to each other on the flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard - the most northerly scheduled flight in the world.

As we pass over one breathtaking view after another, brilliant white peaks set in glittering cobalt seas, the professor points out that much of this water should be ice at this time of year.

He has been going up regularly to see the progress of the vault, set more than 200m deep within the permafrost.

But it's those flowers in his garden that worry him at the moment. "There should be more than a metre of snow in Oslo at the moment - there's hardly any in places."

Climate change is one of the reasons the vault has been created - but by no means the only one.

Professor Skroppa points out those more than 40 countries have had some or all of their seed banks destroyed in recent years - whether through war, as in Afghanistan and Iraq, or through floods or other natural disasters, as in the Philippines.

The mountains get higher and whiter, and the sea looks oilier - almost gelatinous in places - but still not frozen.

But as we leave the plane, the cold - all -13C (9F) of it, plus a whipping wind to drive the temperatures down a good few degrees more - doesn't so much whack you, as sucker punch you.

This isn't so bad, you think - and then you realise, on the short walk from the plane to the arrivals hall, that you've lost all feeling in your toes.

Longyearbyen has very much a frontier feel to it, all low-rise wooden houses and lots of unidentifiable buildings made mainly of pipes (and men with guns to scare the polar bears away. Really.)

Indeed, it used to be a mining town - although only one of the coal mines is still working.

The loss of feeling rises towards my knees as I follow our cameraman, Paul, around, as we try to get as many pictures in the can as possible before we lose what little light there is (we're so far north that the Sun in fact sets in the south, although "sets" isn't quite the right word anyway as it never really rises at this time of year).

I don't want to look like a big girl's blouse and hide, crying because my nose feels like it's about to fall off, in the car.

But then again, that's what I really, really want to do - especially when we stop to film the frozen part of the fjord and it starts snowing.

In the distance, I see a young couple strolling down the snow-covered main street with a pram. I'm a big girl's blouse.

I make up some excuse about having to call London, and go and sit in the car. And cry.

[BBC News]