Most famous is the Global Seed Vault, behind whose striking, decorative facade lie millions of seed samples sourced from almost every country in the world. Others, meanwhile, have had their roles reversed: once places of excavation, they now offer storage. Some, such as the abandoned Soviet shafts of Pyramiden, have become tourist destinations. As those years have passed, and the mines have gradually shuttered, the spaces left behind have taken on new purposes. Roughly halfway between Norway and the North Pole lies Svalbard, a demilitarised Rorschach blot of rock where, for over a hundred years, coal has been cut from beneath the shelves of ice and snow. And for those with an eye on preservation, the announcement has only served to steel their efforts. While for some, the doomsday concept is dated by its associations with Cold War hysteria, the events apparently nudging humanity closer to its end – climate crisis, Covid, war in Ukraine – are anything but antiquated. It was news that arrived with stony faces and straight shoulders. We’re now only 90 seconds to midnight the closest the minute hand has ever come to its final destination since the clock was unveiled in 1947. In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that the Doomsday Clock – a symbol for how soon humanity can expect to meet its end as a result of our own unchecked advances – had ticked forward 10 seconds. Ten seconds is a long time when the clock you’re setting is ticking down to the end of the world. Svalbard, a demilitarised Rorschach blot of rock, lies roughly halfway between Norway and the North Pole (AFP/Getty)
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