© Ole Magnus RappSvalbard Champagne Glass.
Normally the champagne glass collapses around the end of July, but so far nothing has happened.Now locals wonder if summer will come to Svalbard at all.Last year's collapse took place on the 29th of July. But as of today, the last day of August, the stem is still in one piece.
This has not happened in at least 40 years.
The local newspaper Svalbardposten records the date each year when the stem breaks and conducts a contest where readers can predict when it will happen.
Maybe the stem has not broken before, says editor Birger Amundsen, but certainly not since I first came to Svalbard in 1973.
Amundsen still believes the stem will break and he bets on a beautiful autumn in the north.
By the way, Svalbard is where the global seed vault is located. Won't do anyone much good if it's buried beneath the ice, will it?
Source: Aftenposten
"By the way, Svalbard is where the global seed vault is located. Won't do anyone much good if it's buried beneath the ice, will it? "
It might come in handy 80,000 years from now.... provided it survives burial in the Ice Sheet. On the other hand, perhaps they are planning to survive a roasting of Earth's surface.