Today, there are about 1,400 seed banks from all world. These keep seed (varieties) from all (continents) safe in the event of a large (-scale) global crisis, such as a famine. One of the largest seed banks lies inside a mountain on Norway's island of Spitsbergen, just 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole. This is a backup for all the world's other seed banks.
In 1996, director Cary Fowler commented that the seed bank's opening "marks a(n) (historic) turning point in safeguarding the world's (crop) diversity." Billions of seeds are now kept there. They are stored in a permanently chilled, earthquake-free zone 120 meters above sea level. This should allow the seeds to remain high and dry, even if the polar ice caps melt.