Global Crop Diversity Trust

The Doomsday Seed Vault: The Syrian War Prompts First Withdrawal There is a "doomsday" vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies. Now for the first time since the vault was opened on the Svalbard archipelago in 2008, seeds have been withdrawn. The original intent or charter if you will is designed to protect crop seeds such as beans, rice, and wheat against the worst cataclysms of nuclear war or disease (Doyle, 2015). Once you crack the seal, or pop the cork as the case maybe, it is easier to go back to the wine for a sip or two until the bottle is empty. The vault has more than 860,000 samples, from almost all nations and of course the seeds are stored so the world or a particular nation can recover from a catastrophe,…

Exchange was a global trade that Columbus participated in starting in 1492. The trade started because European explorers discovered the Americas and found things that they could trade for to make more profits. This trade was between Europe, Africa, and the Americas also called the New World. The Columbian Exchange had positive and negative effects on Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Throughout the Columbian Exchange, Europe encountered many positive and negative effects. One of the…

Secondly, they pollute water resources and reduce bio-diversity. For example, genetically modified crops are eliminating habitat for monarch butterflies, whose populations are down 50% in the US. Roundup herbicide has been shown to cause birth defects in amphibians, embryonic deaths and endocrine disruptions, and organ damage in animals even at very low doses. Genetically modified canola has been found growing wild in North Dakota and California, threatening to pass on its herbicide tolerant…

Without bees and natural pollinators to fulfill their job of pollination, companies would have to regress into the act of artificial pollination. Artificial, or hand, pollination is a procedure used when natural, often referred to as open, pollination is either insufficient or unwanted or both. Hand pollination is best understood by imagining the process in the same way as artificial insemination in human beings. The value of both wild and/or managed pollinators (such as artificial pollination)…

only 622mi from the North Pole. Considering how far north it is located, with temperatures range from 37.4 and 44.6ºF in July and from 8.6 and –4.0ºF in January, there are no trees. Less than ten percent has any vegetation. Terrain is wild and much of high land is covered with ice. Glaciers and snowfields cover 60% of the total area. Wind is frequent throughout the year. From the 20th of April to the 25th of August sun never sets and from late October to mid-February it never rises. During long…

technology of such a high controversy, without even mentioning that “these technologies pose special challenges. They are very new”(Hayes, Richard). All of the facts needed to convince the people of today’s world to genetically engineer their own child aren’t quite here yet, and that in itself is a huge problem. Also people logically will tend to have fears when someone is going to alter their future child in a lab. Unpleasant thoughts are the first thing that comes to mind, and it is…

improved worldwide. A reason as to why this may have occurred, was due to “…the tremendous postwar increases in the productivity of American farmers, made possible by cheap fossil fuel[s]…” (Pollan, 2010). Furthermore, due to the end of the war, all of the supplies and agriculture that was being produced for the combatants need not be made for the purpose of the war. Therefore, farmers could then produce the same mass amounts but for regular people, creating capital gain. As Michael Pollan…

faster and more valuable foals. The same is done for cattle to yield larger cows, ones that produce more milk and a better product overall. Even in nature, natural selection occurs to remove the weakest and keep the strongest. Humans have simply found a way to take the processes of cross pollination and selective breeding to a more scientific and precise approach. Scientists now take the genetic material at a cellular level and create or modify that host into something new. This is called…

Businesses’ are operating in a troubled economy. The troubled economy cannot be pinpointed to any specific region of the world. Companies must consider economic trends that affect its industry (Pearce & Robinson, 2004). Now, more than ever, managers must consider the general availability of credit, the level of disposable income, and the propensity of people to spend (Pearce & Robinson, 2004). One needs to look no further than the shipping industry to understand how growth has slowed. …

drivers 4.1 Evaluation of the Marks and Spencer Sustainability Report 4.1.1 Non Financial reporting 4.1.2 Environmental Strategy 4.1.3 Green technology and waste policy 4.1.4 Summary of evaluation 4.1.5 Conclusion 5.1 Recommendations 6.1 References 1.1 Executive Summary • Sustainable Development needs to replace the traditional view of economic growth. • Interdependency of issues relating to sustainable development, ecology, ethics, laws and technology. How…