‘Doomsday’ vault design unveiled
“The final design for a “doomsday” vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government.
The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole.
The vault aims to safeguard the world’s agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change.
Construction begins in March, and the seed bank is scheduled to open in 2008.
The Norwegian government is paying the $5m (£2.5m) construction costs of the vault, which will have enough space to house three million seed samples. ”
Read more at BBC News
The alarming world weather in the recent years has raised much fear for the arrival of the DAY- Doomsday, which could wipe out the world population. I’m sure there are lots of articles recently about all the unusual climate change; Accelerated ice cap melting in North Pole, shrinking of glaciers in Switzerland, extensive drought in Australia, flooding of Johor Bahru and Jakarta, subzeros snowstorm across US. Oh man, what’s wrong with the world weather now?? Many claimed that it’s due to the excessive emission of CO2, the main contributor to green house effect. CO2 trapped in the atmosphere will behave like microwave, heating up the whole world. Ice cap melting and I guess the polar bears and penguins should start migrating- but where can they migrate too?? Why not to some air-condition enclosure like the one in Singapore Zoo. I can feel the sense of irony here. Switching on the air-con would mean more energy is used ~ more fuel consumed ~ more CO2 released. Switching of aircon will definitely cool oneself in the room but the surrounding environment will be heated up from the heat dissipated.
Have you watched Al Gore’s “The Inconvenient Truth”? They say it’s a good documentary to raise awareness. I haven’t watch it myself. Perhaps I should watch. Oh ya, due to the increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Airline Boss) is offering $25m (£12.5m) Earth Challenge Prize which he feels was the best way of finding a solution to remove significant amount of CO2.
” Millions of pounds are on offer for the person who comes up with the best way of removing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson launched the competition today in London alongside former US vice-president Al Gore.
A panel of judges will oversee the prize, including James Lovelock and Nasa scientist James Hansen.
Sir Richard said humankind must realise the scale of the crisis it faced. ”
Read more at BBC News
My proposal? Here are 10 $ 2.5 million solutions:
1) Plant a lot a lot of trees (the standard answer)
2) Use less paper or use the electronic paper (FYI- Singapore is the highest consumption of paper per capita in the world)
3) Reduce usage of toilet paper when doing big “business”
4) Do not print exam papers- abolishment of final exams will solve this
5) Limit the purchase of petrol per car, increase road tax, petrol price, car price- anything to discourage usage of cars (Just dream on)
6) Free bicycle for everyone. You dun have to drive around then
7) Working/Lesson hours should start later and end earlier. This is for point 6 so that people can reach their work/school on time when cycling. (another dream on. Imagine cycling around NUS between your classes!) 
Limit the electricity usage (just switch off the main switch at night everyday) (Blackout!! wonder what people will do at that time.. ahem)
9) Limit the logging activities. Anyone found logging illegally should be exterminated.
10) Employ someone to come up with the solutions- He/She shall be paid $ 1 million
(I’m just too bored. Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day and a Happy Piggy Chinese New Year) Those who know me well will know who’s ®VÄLèñTĩñÕ®. Valentine’s Day is actually Valentino’s Day- Haha. 
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