Svalbard

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the unincorporated territory of Norway is the recently inducted global seed vault.  This seed vault eclipses all the other remarkable bits concerning the archipelago for several reasons.  First, a vault of this kind is supremely more priceless in actual value than a vault that contains hordes of other products from trees, namely dyed paper; it also is of infinitely more value than the troves of the polished and refined products of mines in other vaults (gold and other ‘precious’ metals).  If your mind repels this idea, the barricade clouding your mind should be penetrated easily enough with a simple hypothetical situation:  imagine a global drought, pandemic plant pathology outbreak, or other food crisis…which vault do you think would be raided, or put at a premium while the world’s health and nutrition hangs in the balance.  

At least one other enigma that came into mind while considering the cluster of islands that is the quasi-annexed entity of Svalbard is that ‘no man is an island.’  Despite the vast expanse of seas that separate this landmass from even its neighbor, let alone the rest of the world, it is now inextricably linked to the preservation of future generations’ nutrition.  It has always been linked to the rest of the world – it is just more evident and imminent now.