Use of English PRO

The Global Seed Vault is intended to preserve the genetic diversity of the planet in case of a great natural disaster or a war. The vault storing the world's most precious seeds is taking delivery of a very large consignment.
........................
An additional 70,000 crops will be added to frozen storage chambers buried deep within a mountain in the Arctic Circle. Monday marks the tenth anniversary of the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard. One of the three chambers is now almost full of packets of seeds, each a variety of an important food crop. The number of deposits amounts to 1,059,646. Hitting the million mark is really significant because they are dedicated to conserving the diversity of the crops we rely on for food. But all is not well.
........................
There was an unexpected incident. The vault was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world's most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity's food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, was breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter melting the surrounding ice.
........................
They were not prepared for a flood. When the vault was opened in 2008, the deep permafrost through which the vault was sunk was expected to provide fail-safe protection against the challenge of natural or man-made disasters. But soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the world's hottest ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when light snow should have been falling. It was not expected that the permafrost would not be there and that it would experience extreme weather like that. A lot of water went into the start of the tunnel, and then it froze to ice.
........................
Fortunately, the meltwater did not reach the vault itself, the ice has been hacked out, and the precious seeds remain safe for now at the required storage temperature of -18C. But the breach has questioned the ability of the vault to survive as a lifeline for humanity if catastrophe strikes. They are watching the seed vault 24 hours a day, because they need to minimise all the risks, and make sure the seed bank can take care of itself.
........................
The vault's managers are now waiting to see if the extreme heat of this winter was a one-off or will be repeated or even exceeded as climate change heats the planet. The end of 2016 saw average temperatures over 7C above normal on Spitsbergen, pushing the permafrost above melting point. The Svalbard archipelago, of which Spitsbergen is part, has warmed rapidly in recent decades. The Arctic and especially Svalbard warms up faster than the rest of the world. The climate is changing dramatically and everyone is amazed at how quickly it is going. The vault managers are now taking precautions, including major work to waterproof the 100 m-long tunnel into the mountain and digging trenches into the mountainside to channel meltwater and rain away.
........................
The vault's safety had to be guaranteed. They have also removed electrical equipment from the tunnel that produced some heat and installed pumps in the vault itself in case of a future flood.