Humanity has an Insurance Policy, and you can visit it in the Arctic

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, often called the "Doomsday Vault," is a secure facility designed to protect the world's crop diversity. Located on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, about 1,300 kilometres (810 miles) from the North Pole, it serves as a backup repository for seeds in case of global crises, such as natural disasters, war, or climate change.

Built into the side of a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, the vault benefits from the region's permafrost, which provides a natural layer of protection and helps maintain the cold temperatures needed to preserve seeds. The facility is engineered to withstand natural disasters, including earthquakes and rising sea levels, as well as human-made threats like nuclear conflict. It is kept at a consistent temperature of -18°C (0°F), ensuring that seeds can remain viable for decades or even centuries.

The vault can hold up to 4.5 million seed samples, each containing roughly 500 seeds. Currently, it houses over 1.3 million samples from over 6,200 species contributed by almost every nation in the world. The deposits are owned by the countries or organisations that provide them, and the vault functions like a secure safety deposit box for genetic resources.

Operated by the Norwegian government in partnership with the Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre (NordGen), the facility complements existing seed banks worldwide rather than replacing them. It acts as a fail-safe to ensure that agricultural biodiversity can be preserved even if other seed banks are compromised.