Focus on Arts and Ecology

At Yale Environment 360 this week, our contributing writer Fred Pearce reports on an unexpected casualty of wars now being fought across the world: seeds. From Ukraine to Sudan to Palestine, critical collections of rare seeds, which may be needed to grow resilient crops in a warming world, have been shelled, looted, or shut down. Scientists are now rushing to preserve salvaged seeds by sending them to a “doomsday vault” deep in the Arctic Circle in Svalbard, Norway. “As conflicts escalate and the world becomes more dangerous,” says a researcher, “so our priceless collections of seeds are at ever greater risk.” Read Pearce’s report.

View all our reporting and commentary at Yale Environment 360 and add your thoughts to the discussion. Plus, keep track of new environmental developments at our e360 Digest.

Roger Cohn
Editor

Yale Environment 360