DAY 5 THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12 IN THE DARK, NOT MUCH PLANNED
We had only planned on doing the museum today and maybe a bit of shopping so we did not set our alarm to get up, thinking that surely we would wake by around 8:30 or so. Surprisingly, my husband shown his flashlight down on me at 9:30 and that's when we got up. Again, without the visual cues of something showing a bit of light outside, we would have just kept on sleeping. So we jumped up and put on clothes and got to breakfast at 9:45. They stop serving at 10. At the moment there are just 3 of us in the hotel. This weekend it will be full which is why we have to vacate our room for one night.
After breakfast, we have time to kill before the museum opens at noon so we work on the computer catching up one day at a time and then about 12:15, we close up shop, rug up warm and head out
.
First stop is the shop where we bought our walking crampons. She is very gracious and gives us a free pair so now we have a spare. Unfortunately on other things, my warm hat has broken the plastic snap that makes it tight under my chin and my watch band has torn in two. I try and glue it back together but the super glue isn’t super enough and it doesn’t stay. Hate being without a watch.
We walk on down past the Radisson Blu hotel to the museum which is attached to a part of the university. We stand there to check our map and then see the museum sign and go in. There are lockers for your gloves and such, coat hangers with hangers that won’t come off the rack, and slippers so you can take off your boots. We do all that before we get to the desk. I see that it has a pensioners sign and ask for that price. It’s really just for Norwegians but she lets me have that price as well. Yea me. Saved some money.
The first exhibit was "Polar Night" which had a lot of posters with information on the life in the seas and on the land and what happens during the polar night. It was fascinating and how interesting that a lot of the sea creatures depend on the night to reproduce and to keep functioning and survive
. Plus places where the moon and the northern lights are the only illumination for almost 6 months of the year. So these animals/plants/whatever must have this little bit of light to survive and do so quite handily. It was a good exhibit.
The rest of the museum was quite good as well. A lot of information about the settlers, the treaty that made Svalbard into the Russian/Norwegian protectorates that it is now, the life of the miners, the hunters, the whalers, the families and such. It took us a couple of hours to do the museum and I read it all which normally I don’t like to do.
This is what I found in Wikipedia on the Svalbard Treaty. It doesn’t mention the Russian concession and mining town of Barentsburg in the north but from everything we were told, Russia was a part of the agreement and if either country – Norway or Russia – pulled out of the area and the mining, the other country would kind of have free reign to go in and take it over. Not sure how it all works but here’s Wikipedia version:
“””””The Treaty between Norway, The United States of America, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland and the British overseas Dominions and Sweden concerning Spitsbergen, signed in Paris 9 February 1920, commonly called the Svalbard Treaty or the Spitsbergen Treaty, recognises the sovereignty of Norway over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, at the time called Spitsbergen. The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, and not all Norwegian law applies. The treaty regulates the demilitarisation of the archipelago
. The signatories were given equal rights to engage in commercial activities (mainly coal mining) on the islands. As of 2012, Norway and Russia are making use of this right.
There were fourteen original High Contracting Parties, including: the United States, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,[1] Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and British overseas dominions of Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and New Zealand.[2] Several additional nations signed within the next five years before the treaty came into force, including the Soviet Union in 1924 and Germany and China in 1925. There are now over 40 signatories. The treaty was submitted for registration in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 21 October 1920.[3]
Of the original signatories Japan was the last to ratify the treaty on 2 August 1925. Subsequently, on 14 August 1925, the treaty came into force.[4]
History[edit]
The archipelago was discovered by the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz in 1596 and was originally called Spitsbergen, meaning "sharp-peaked mountains"
. It was uninhabited. The islands were renamed in the 1920s by Norway as Svalbard.
Spitsbergen/Svalbard began as a territory free of a nation, with multiple people from different countries participating in industries including fishing, whaling, mining, research and later, tourism. Not belonging to any nation left Svalbard largely free of regulations or laws, though there were conflicts over the area due to whaling rights and issues of sovereignty between England, the Netherlands, and Denmark–Norway in the first half of the 17th century. However, by the 20th century mineral deposits were found on the main island and continual conflicts between miners and owners created a need for a government.
The Treaty[edit]
By 9 February 1920 the Spitsbergen Treaty was signed in Paris during the Versailles negotiations after World War I. In this treaty, international diplomacy recognized Norwegian sovereignty (the Norwegian administration went in effect by 1925) as well as other principles relating to Svalbard. This includes:
Svalbard is part of Norway: Svalbard is completely controlled by and forms part of the Kingdom of Norway
. However, Norway's power over Svalbard is restricted by the limitations listed below:
Taxation: This allows taxes to be collected, but only enough to support Svalbard and the Svalbard government. This results in lower taxes than mainland Norway and the exclusion of any taxes on Svalbard supporting Norway directly. Also, Svalbard's revenues and expenses are separately budgeted from mainland Norway.
Environmental conservation: Norway must respect and preserve the Svalbard environment.
Non-discrimination: All citizens and all companies of every nation under the treaty are allowed to become residents and to have access to Svalbard including the right to fish, hunt or undertake any kind of maritime, industrial, mining or trade activity. The residents of Svalbard must follow Norwegian law though Norwegian authority cannot discriminate against or favor any residents of any given nationality.
Military restrictions: Article 9 prohibits naval bases and fortifications and also the use of Svalbard for war-like purposes
. It is not, however, entirely demilitarized.
Disputes regarding natural resources[edit]
200-nautical-mile (370 km) zone around Svalbard[edit]
There has been a long-running dispute, primarily between Norway and Russia (historically the Soviet Union) over fishing rights in the region.[5][6] In 1977, Norway established a regulated fishery in a 200-nautical-mile (370 km) zone around Svalbard (though it did not close the zone to foreign access).[5] Norway argues that the treaty's provisions of equal economic access apply only to the islands and their territorial waters (4 nautical miles at the time) but not to the wider Exclusive Economic Zone. In addition, it argues that the continental shelf is a part of mainland Norway's continental shelf and should be governed by the 1958 Continental Shelf Convention.[6] The Soviet Union/Russia disputed and continues to dispute this position and consider the Spitsbergen Treaty to apply to the entire zone. Talks were held in 1978 in Moscow but did not resolve the issue.[5] Finland and Canada support Norway's position, while most of the other treaty signatories have expressed no official position.[5] The relevant parts of the treaty are as follows:
Ships and nationals of all the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy equally the rights of fishing and hunting in the territories specified in Article 1 and in their territorial waters. (from Article 2)
They shall be admitted under the same conditions of equality to the exercise and practice of all maritime, industrial, mining or commercial enterprises both on land and in the territorial waters, and no monopoly shall be established on any account or for any enterprise whatever. (from Article 3)
Natural resources outside the 200-nautical-mile (370 km) zone[edit]
"Mainly the dispute is about whether the Svalbard Treaty also is in effect outside the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea," according to Norway's largest newspaper, Aftenposten.[7] If the treaty comes into effect outside the zone, then Norway will not be able to claim the full 78% of profits of oil- and gas harvesting, said Aftenposten in 2011.[8]””””””
Finally we are done and I find a nice Northern Lights calendar and a small polar bear for good luck. We head out after rugging up again and see the Duty Free shop and head for it. As we are walking down the street, a car pulls up to us and gives us each a reflective arm band so we will be seen better. I felt bad that we were going around without them but what a generous man and he was so impressed that we had come specifically to experience the dark and hopefully see the Northern Lights.
Into the Duty Free shop and she has a lot of items for everyday use, things that we would not normally find in what we consider a duty free shop like in an airport. She doesn’t have any of the reflective bands that we have seen on kids though, the ones that light up in the dark. She says the apothecary. She does have a magnet I like though.
Then to the shopping mall and again, because I’m not used to the place and there isn’t a lot of visual cues in the dim light, twice I try and turn into the wrong place but we finally find the mall and go into the shop to get a hot dog each which was like a real hot dog and not like a bad sausage dog from the UK. Then we get some ice cream and then go to one of the sports stores which I would think would have the reflective stuff but she points us also to the apothecary. So into the apothecary and she does have the light bands so I end up with three of which I wanted one red and one green for our daughter but she doesn’t have a green one. Maybe we’ll all just have one.
Back to the hotel to write and my hubby reads until he gets tired and wants to take a nap. I continue on so I can catch up with my days on this blog at least. There is a lot more noise in the hotel. People are coming in for the weekend. Apparently a lot of places will have a weekend meeting here or a weekend break for their employees. It’s fairly cheap to fly from Oslo or Tromso and especially if you have miles to use. That’s why the hotel will be full over the weekend. Think we already have neighbors in the room next to ours and they are noisy. Hope we will get good sleep. Tomorrow we will have to get up, eat, pack, check out, wait for a bit, take our ride around town for two hours, and leave for the trapper’s night around 7. Wish we could sleep longer!
More Wikipedia information on Polar Nights: and then since I seem to be doing Wikipedia a lot today, after Polar Night is the Wikipedia for the Global Seed Vault which is in Svalbard and we saw it – well the door anyway, but there was information on it in the museum which we didn’t realize it was there, so cool!
Now: Polar Night
“”””””The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This occurs only inside the polar circles.[1] The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnight sun, occurs when the Sun stays above the horizon for more than 24 hours. "Night" is understood as the center of the Sun being below a free horizon. Since the atmosphere bends the rays of the Sun, "light wins over darkness" by a few degrees. Hence the area that is affected by polar night is somewhat smaller than the area of midnight sun. The polar circle is located at a latitude between these two areas, at the latitude of approx. 66.5 degrees. For instance, in the most northern city of Sweden, Kiruna (located at the northern latitude of 67°51'), the polar night lasts for around 28 twenty-four hour periods, while the midnight sun lasts around 50 twenty-four hour periods.
Description[edit]
A common misconception is that the polar shortest day is totally dark everywhere inside the polar circle. In places very close to the poles it is completely dark, but regions located at the inner border of the polar circles experience polar twilight instead of polar night. In fact, polar regions typically get more twilight throughout the year than equatorial regions.
For regions inside the polar circles, the maximum lengths of the time that the Sun is completely below the horizon varies from about 20 hours at the Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle[citation needed] to 179 days at the Poles.[citation needed] However, not all this time is classified as polar night, since sunlight may be visible because of refraction.[citation needed] Also, the time when the Sun is above the horizon at the poles is 186 days. The numerical asymmetry occurs because the time when the Sun is partially above the horizon is counted towards the daytime. Also, the above numbers are average numbers: owing to the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit, where the South pole receives a week more of Sun-below-horizon than the North pole (see equinox).
Types of polar night[edit]
Early afternoon during the polar night in Tromsø, Norway.
Polar night on Nordkinn Peninsula, mainland Europe's northernmost peninsula.
As there are various kinds of twilight, there also exist various kinds of polar night. Each kind of polar night is defined as when it's darker than the corresponding kind of twilight. The descriptions below are based on relatively clear skies, so the sky will be darker in the presence of dense clouds.
Polar twilight[edit]
Polar twilight occurs in areas that are located at the inner border of the polar circles, where the Sun will be on or below the horizon all day on the winter solstice. There is then no true daylight at the solar culmination, only civil twilight. This means that the Sun is below the horizon, but by less than 6°. During civil twilight, there may still be enough light for normal outdoor activities because of light scattering by the upper atmosphere and refraction. Street lamps may remain on and a person looking at a window from within a brightly lit room may see their reflection even at noon, as the level of outdoor illuminance will be below that of many illuminated indoor spaces.
Sufferers of seasonal affective disorder tend to seek out therapy with artificial light, as the psychological benefits of daylight require relatively high levels of ambient light (up to 10,000 lux) which are not present in any stage of twilight, thus, the midday twilights experienced anywhere inside the polar circles are still "polar night" for this purpose.
Thus, polar twilight is limited to latitudes above 66.561 degrees above the equator or below the equator, in other words, above the Arctic circle or below the Antarctic circle.
Civil polar night[edit]
The civil polar night period produces only a faint glow of light visible at midday. It happens when there is no civil twilight and only nautical twilight occurs at the solar culmination. Civil twilight happens when the Sun is between 0 and 6° below the horizon, and civil night when it is lower than that. Therefore the civil polar night is limited to latitudes above 72° 34', which is exactly 6° inside the polar circle. Nowhere on mainland Europe is this definition met. On the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, however, civil polar night lasts from about 11 November until 30 January. Dikson, in Russia, experiences civil polar night for approximately a month. During dense cloud cover places like the coast of Finnmark (about 70°) in Norway will get a darker "day".
Nautical polar night[edit]
During the nautical polar night period, there is no trace of daylight, except around midday. It happens when there is no nautical twilight and only astronomical twilight occurs at the solar culmination. Nautical twilight happens when the Sun is between six and twelve degrees below the horizon. There is a location at the horizon around midday with more light than others because of refraction. During nautical night, the Sun is lower than 12° below the horizon, so nautical polar night is limited to latitudes above 78° 34', which is exactly 12° within the polar circle, or 11.5° from the pole. Alert, Nunavut, the northernmost settlement in Canada and the world, experiences this from late November to mid-January.
Astronomical polar night[edit]
The astronomical polar night is a period of continuous night where no astronomical twilight occurs. Astronomical twilight happens when the Sun is between twelve and eighteen degrees below the horizon and astronomical night when it is lower than that. Thus, the astronomical polar night is limited to latitudes above 84° 34', which is exactly 18° within the polar circle, or five and a half degrees from the pole. During the astronomical polar night stars of the sixth magnitude, which are the dimmest stars visible to the naked eye, will be visible throughout the entire day. This happens when the sun is between 18 to 23.5 degrees below the horizon. These conditions last about 11 weeks at the poles.
There are no known permanent settlements anywhere in this range of latitude. This portion of the Arctic Ocean is generally permanently ice-capped.[citation needed] Some[which?] scientific stations in Antarctica, including the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, experience this.
Effects on humans[edit]
The period of polar night can trigger depression in some people. People who suffer from seasonal affective disorder are particularly susceptible to these conditions.[citation needed] The polar night may also be implicated in some instances of solipsism syndrome.””””””
Now: Global Seed Vault:
“”””””The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a secure seed bank on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole.[4] Conservationist Cary Fowler, in association with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),[5] started the vault to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds that are duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault is an attempt to insure against the loss of seeds in other genebanks during large-scale regional or global crises. The seed vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).[6]
The Norwegian government entirely funded the vault's approximately NOK 45 million (US$9 million) construction.[7] Storing seeds in the vault is free to end users, with Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust paying for operational costs. Primary funding for the Trust comes from such organisations as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and from various governments worldwide.[8]
History[edit]
The Nordic Gene Bank (NGB) has, since 1984, stored backup Nordic plant germplasm via frozen seeds in an abandoned coal mine at Svalbard, over the years depositing more than 10,000 seed samples of more than 2,000 cultivars for 300 different species. The Nordic collection has for years duplicated seed samples from the Southern African Development Community. Both the Nordic and African collections have been transferred to the new Svalbard Global Seed Vault facility. On 1 January 2008 the Nordic Gene Bank was integrated with NordGen.[citation needed]
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland's prime ministers ceremonially laid "the first stone" on 19 June 2006.[1]
The seedbank is 120 metres (390 ft) inside a sandstone mountain on Spitsbergen Island,[9] and employs robust security systems. Seeds are packaged in special four-ply packets and heat sealed to exclude moisture. The facility is managed by the Nordic Genetic Resource Center, though there are no permanent staff on-site.
Spitsbergen was considered ideal because it lacked tectonic activity and had permafrost, which aids preservation. Its being 130 metres (430 ft) above sea level will keep the site dry even if the ice caps melt.[9] Locally mined coal provides power for refrigeration units that further cool the seeds to the internationally recommended standard of −18 °C (−0.4 °F).[10] If the equipment fails, at least several weeks will elapse before the facility rises to the surrounding sandstone bedrock's temperature of −3 °C (27 °F).[4]
A feasibility study prior to construction determined that the vault could, for hundreds of years, preserve most major food crops' seeds. Some, including those of important grains, could survive far longer—possibly thousands of years.[11]
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault officially opened on 26 February 2008.[2] Approximately 1.5 million distinct seed samples of agricultural crops are thought to exist. The variety and volume of seeds stored will depend on the number of countries participating – the facility has a capacity to conserve 4.5 million. The first seeds arrived in January 2008.[12] Five percent of the seeds in the vault, about 18,000 samples with 500 seeds each, come from the Centre for Genetic Resources of the Netherlands (CGN), part of Wageningen University, Netherlands.[13]
Running the length of the facility's roof and down the front face to the entryway is an illuminated work of art that marks the location of the vault from a distance. In Norway, government-funded construction projects exceeding a certain cost must include artwork. KORO, the Norwegian State agency overseeing art in public spaces, engaged the artist Dyveke Sanne to install lighting that highlights the importance and qualities of Arctic light. The roof and vault entrance are filled with highly reflective stainless steel, mirrors, and prisms. The installation reflects polar light in the summer months, while in the winter, a network of 200 fibre-optic cables gives the piece a muted greenish-turquoise and white light.[14]
Mission[edit]
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault's mission is to provide a safety net against accidental loss of diversity in traditional genebanks. While the popular press has emphasized its possible utility in the event of a major regional or global catastrophe, it will be more frequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, and natural disasters. These events occur with some regularity. War and civil strife have a history of destroying some genebanks. The national seed bank of the Philippines was damaged by flooding and later destroyed by a fire; the seed banks of Afghanistan and Iraq have been lost completely.[15] According to The Economist, "the Svalbard vault is a backup for the world's 1,750 seed banks, storehouses of agricultural biodiversity."[15]
Access to seeds[edit]
Vault seed samples are copies of samples stored in the depositing genebanks. Researchers, plant breeders, and other groups wishing to access seed samples cannot do so through the seed vault; they must instead request samples from the depositing genebanks. The samples stored in the genebanks will, in most cases, be accessible in accordance with the terms and conditions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, approved by 118 countries or parties.[11][16]
The seed vault functions like a safe deposit box in a bank. The bank owns the building and the depositor owns the contents of his or her box. The Government of Norway owns the facility and the depositing genebanks own the seeds they send. The deposit of samples in Svalbard does not constitute a legal transfer of genetic resources. In genebank terminology this is called a "black box" arrangement. Each depositor signs a Deposit Agreement with NordGen, acting on behalf of Norway. The Agreement makes clear that Norway does not claim ownership over the deposited samples and that ownership remains with the depositor, who has the sole right of access to those materials in the seed vault. No one has access to anyone else's seeds from the seed vault.[11][17] The database of samples and depositors is maintained by NordGen.[18]
The Syrian Civil War caused another seed bank, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, to move its headquarters from Aleppo to Beirut. Due to difficulties by ICARDA in transferring its collection, in 2015 the Svalbard Vault authorized the first withdrawal of seeds in its history.[19][20][21]
Seed storage[edit]
Seed storage containers on metal shelving inside the vault
The seeds are stored in four-ply sealed envelopes, then placed into plastic tote containers on metal shelving racks. The storage rooms are kept at −18 °C (−0.4 °F). The low temperature and limited access to oxygen will ensure low metabolic activity and delay seed aging. The permafrost surrounding the facility will help maintain the low temperature of the seeds should the electricity supply fail.[7][17]
Global Crop Diversity Trust[edit]
The Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) has played a key role in the planning of the seed vault and is coordinating shipments of seed samples to the Vault in conjunction with the Nordic Genetic Resource Center. The Trust will provide most of the annual operating costs for the facility, and has set aside endowment funds to do so, while the Norwegian government will finance upkeep of the structure itself. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other donors, the GCDT is assisting selected genebanks in developing countries as well as the international agricultural research centers in packaging and shipping seeds to the seed vault. An International Advisory Council is being established to provide guidance and advice. It will include representatives from the FAO, the CGIAR, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources and other institutions.[citation needed]
First anniversary deposits[edit]
As part of the vault's first anniversary, more than 90,000 food crop seed samples were placed into storage, bringing the total number of seed samples to 400,000.[22] Among the new seeds includes 32 varieties of potatoes from Ireland's national gene banks and 20,000 new samples from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.[23] Other seed samples came from Canada and Switzerland, as well as international seed researchers from Colombia, Mexico and Syria.[24] This 4-tonne (3.9-long-ton; 4.4-short-ton) shipment brought the total number of seeds stored in the vault to over 20 million.[22] As of this anniversary, the vault contained samples from approximately one-third of the world's most important food crop varieties.[24] Also part of the anniversary, experts on food production and climate change met for a three-day conference in Longyearbyen.[25]”””””
No comments:
Post a Comment