Way, way up there, on a secluded island in Norway some 600 miles from the North Pole, an ambitious project is underway: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is being carved into a frozen, Arctic mountainside. And it will be guarded by polar bears.

The vault – which many consider the plant world’s equivalent to Noah’s Ark – will house millions and millions of seeds in case of a global catastrophe. You may remember reading about it here before.

Its purpose is to ensure the survival of crop diversity in the event of all sorts of terrible scenarios -- plant epidemics, nuclear war, an asteroid hit, biowarfare, natural disasters or climate change. If our food crops are obliterated, the high-tech cavern – which will hold the DNA recipes for endless varieties of rice, bananas, carrots and everything else in the produce aisles -- is meant to be planet's ultimate insurance policy.

To ensure their survival, the seeds are packaged in foil and stored at sub-zero temperatures so that they’ll remain viable for hundreds, even thousands, of years. Even if the cooling systems fail, the hope is that the permafrost will keep the seeds frozen.

More than 100 countries have backed the vault, which will by run by the independent Global Crop Diversity Trust. It is scheduled to open and start accepting seeds from around the world in September 2007.

Meanwhile, extraordinary measures are in place to ensure that the vault is secure. The concrete facility is fenced in, and features steel airlock doors and motion detectors. Oh yeah, and Svalbard's free-roaming polar bears -- known for their ferocity – are meant to act as natural guardians. (As far I know, they will not have pistols.)

Now, this leads to a few questions: In the wake of a global catastrophe, won’t it be hard to find this remote island, especially if we lose Google Maps? And how will we get there, in the event that we no longer have access to planes, trains, snowmobiles or an abundance of fleece?

And once the hardy team has trekked up to the Arctic Circle, let’s hope that polar bears stand down.