Are Apples Becoming Extinct?

Did you know there are less than 1000 varieties of apples here in the US? That doesn't seem like a problem, does it? How about if I tell you, in the 1800s, here in America, there were over 7,000 different varieties of apples, which leaves us with about an 85% extinction rate! I was listening to a 60 Minutes podcast two weeks ago. Yes, this is the audio version of the show. Feel free to download it and take a listen. Why should I care that there are less than 1000 varieties of apples left? What if I told you that the cure to cancer, the cure to some obscure disease that could wipe out the world's wheat supply, the cure to some unknown disease, could lie in the genes of just one of those apple varieties? Now you know why this is so important and what one man is doing about it.

When I first started listening to this podcast, frankly, I thought...who cares? Animals and plants get extinct every day...and I'm not talking about the ones humans are pushing to extinction but the millions of species that are disappearing through the natural progression of evolution and the ways of nature. But when they started talking about possible cures and keys to our future, my ears perked up. There is this guy, who made it his life mission, to construct a kind of Noah's Ark, depositing and saving the world's seeds in one place. A place up North in Norway that can survive for something like 10,000 years, regardless of global warming or wars or even a nuclear winter. It's called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and is truly a global project. Think about this the next time you bite into that almost one-of-a-kind apple or eat whatever it is you're eating. I am reminded that life truly is precious and that God gave us brains to help ourselves. In today's world, it is really something to see countries from around the world, working together on something that may eventually save all of us. Norway owns the bank but all countries are free to deposit their seeds and many hundreds have already done so.

Have you read anything lately that leaves you with a spring in your step? Have you read something lately that really restores your faith in humankind?