All human life, all life, depends on plants. Let me try to convince you of that in a few seconds. Just think for a moment. It doesn't matter whether you live in a small African village, or you live in a big city, everything comes back to plants in the end: whether it's for the food, the medicine, the fuel, the construction, the clothing, all the obvious things; or whether it's for the spiritual and recreational things that matter to us so much; or whether it's soil formation, or the effect on the atmosphere, or primary production. Damn it, even the books here are made out of plants. All these things, they come back to plants. And without them we wouldn't be here.
Ljudski život, život generalno, zavisi od biljaka. Dozvolite mi da vas ubedim u to u samo nekoliko sekundi. Razmislite samo jedan momenat. Nezavisno od toga da li živite u malom selu u Africi, ili živite u velikom gradu, sve se na kraju zasniva na biljkama: bez obzira da li ih koristimo kao hranu, lekove, gorivo, gradivni materijal, za garderobu, za sve očigledne stvari, ili da li su u pitanju spritualni ili rekreativni fenomeni koji su nam jako važni, ili govorimo o stvaranju zemljišta, ili o uticaju na atmosferu, ili primarnu prozivodnju. Dođavola, čak su knjige napravljene od biljaka. Sve ove stvari, sve su povezane sa biljkama. Bez biljaka ne bismo bili ovde.
Now plants are under threat. They're under threat because of changing climate. And they are also under threat because they are sharing a planet with people like us. And people like us want to do things that destroy plants, and their habitats. And whether that's because of food production, or because of the introduction of alien plants into places that they really oughtn't be, or because of habitats being used for other purposes -- all these things are meaning that plants have to adapt, or die, or move. And plants sometimes find it rather difficult to move because there might be cities and other things in the way.
Danas su biljke u opasnosti. U opasnosti su usled promena klime. U opasnosti su i usled toga što dele planetu sa ljudima kao što smo mi. Ljudi kao što smo mi žele da unište biljke i njihova staništa. Bez obzira da li je to usled prozivodnje hrane ili usled uvođenja stranih biljaka na mesta gde te biljke ne bi trebalo da budu ili zato što se staništa koriste u druge svrhe -- sve to znači da biljke moraju da se adaptiraju, izumru ili presele. Biljkama je ponekad veoma teško da se sele jer nailaze na gradove na tom putu.
So if all human life depends on plants, doesn't it make sense that perhaps we should try to save them? I think it does. And I want to tell you about a project to save plants. And the way that you save plants is by storing seeds. Because seeds, in all their diverse glory, are plants' futures. All the genetic information for future generations of plants are held in seeds. So here is the building; it looks rather unassuming, really. But it goes down below ground many stories. And it's the largest seed bank in the world. It exists not only in southern England, but distributed around the world. I'll come to that. This is a nuclear-proof facility. God forbid that it should have to withstand that.
S obzirom da ljudski život zavisi od biljaka, da li vam se čini razumno da treba da pokušamo da ih spasemo? Ja mislim da ima smisla. Želim da vam pričam o projektu koji za cilj ima da spase biljke. Način na koji spašavate biljke jeste da uskladištite njihova semena. Jer su semena, u svojoj raznovrsnoj veličanstvenosti, budućnost biljaka. Sva genetička informacija neophodna za sledeće generacije biljaka je sadržana u semenima. Ovo je zgrada, zaista ne izgleda pretenciozno, ali se proteže duboko ispod nivoa zemlje. Ovo je najveća banka semena na svetu. Postoji ne samo u Južnoj Engleskoj, več na različitim delovima sveta. Pričaću vam o tome. Ovo je postrojenje koje ima protiv-nuklearnu zaštitu. Ne daj Bože da treba da odoli tome.
So if you're going to build a seed bank, you have to decide what you're going to store in it. Right? And we decided that what we want to store first of all, are the species that are most under threat. And those are the dry land species. So first of all we did deals with 50 different countries. It means negotiating with heads of state, and with secretaries of state in 50 countries to sign treaties. We have 120 partner institutions all over the world, in all those countries colored orange. People come from all over the world to learn, and then they go away and plan exactly how they're going to collect these seeds. They have thousands of people all over the world tagging places where those plants are said to exist. They search for them. They find them in flower. And they go back when their seeds have arrived. And they collect the seeds. All over the world.
Ako želite da napravite banku semena, treba i da odlučite šta želite u njoj da uskladištite. Zar ne? Mi smo odlučili da želimo pre svega da uskadištimo semena onih vrsta koje su pod najvećom opasnošću. To su vrste koje žive u sušnim predelima. Prvo smo napravili dogovor sa 50 različitih zemalja. To znači da smo pregovarali sa predsednicima država, i zamenicima predsednika 50 država kako bismo potpisali sporazume. Imamo 120 instituta koji su naši partneri po celom svetu, u svim ovim zemljama u narandžastoj boji. Ljudi dolaze iz svih delova sveta da nauče, a potom odlaze i planiraju tačno kako će sakupiti ta semena. Postoje hiljade ljudi širom sveta koji obeležavaju mesta na kojim je rečeno da se te biljke mogu naći. Traže ih. Nađu ih u periodu cvetanja. Vraćaju se kada su semena spremna za žetvu. Potom sakupe ta semena širom sveta.
The seeds -- some of if is very untechnical. You kind of shovel them all in to bags and dry them off. You label them. You do some high-tech things here and there, some low-tech things here and there. And the main thing is that you have to dry them very carefully, at low temperature. And then you have to store them at about minus 20 degrees C -- that's about minus four Fahrenheit, I think -- with a very critically low moisture content. And these seeds will be able to germinate, we believe, with many of the species, in thousands of years, and certainly in hundreds of years.
Semena -- deo tih procesa je veoma netehnički. U principu vi ih otresete u kesu i osušite ih. Obeležite ih. Odradite neke visoko tehnološke postupke tu i tamo, i neke ne tako sofisticirane postupke. Glavna stvar leži u tome da treba veoma pažljivo da osušite semena na niskoj temepraturi. Potom treba da ih uskladištite na temepraturi od -20 stepeni C -- mislim da je to od prilike -4 stepena Farenhajtove skale -- i pri kritično niskom sadržaju vlage. Ova semena će moći da proklijaju, mi verujemo u slučaju mnogih vrsta i za hiljade godina, a sigurno za nekoliko stotina godina.
It's no good storing the seeds if you don't know they're still viable. So every 10 years we do germination tests on every sample of seeds that we have. And this is a distributed network. So all around the world people are doing the same thing. And that enables us to develop germination protocols. That means that we know the right combination of heat and cold and the cycles that you have to get to make the seed germinate. And that is very useful information. And then we grow these things, and we tell people, back in the countries where these seeds have come from, "Look, actually we're not just storing this to get the seeds later, but we can give you this information about how to germinate these difficult plants." And that's already happening.
Nema koristi u skladištenju semena, ukoliko ne znate da li su vijabilna. Tako da svakih 10 godina proveravamo sposobnost klijanja na svim uzorcima semena koje imamo. Ovo je razrađena mreža zadataka. Širom sveta ljudi rade iste stvari. To nam omogućava da napravimo protokole za klijanje. To znači da mi znamo pravu kombinaciju toplote i hladnoće i ciklusa koji su neophodni da bi to seme proklijalo. To su veoma korisne informacije. Potom uzgajamo ove biljke, i kažemo ljudima u zemljama u kojima su ova semena sakupljena: "Gledajte, mi ne samo da skladištimo semena kako bismo uzgajali biljke kasnije, već možemo i da vam obezbedimo informacije o neophodnim uslovima za klijanje ovih komplikovanih biljaka." To se već dešava.
So where have we got to? I am pleased to unveil that our three billionth seed -- that's three thousand millionth seed -- is now stored. Ten percent of all plant species on the planet, 24,000 species are safe; 30,000 species, if we get the funding, by next year. Twenty-five percent of all the world's plants, by 2020. These are not just crop plants, as you might have seen stored in Svalbard in Norway -- fantastic work there. This is at least 100 times bigger. We have thousands of collections that have been sent out all over the world: drought-tolerant forest species sent to Pakistan and Egypt; especially photosynthetic-efficient plants come here to the United States; salt-tolerant pasture species sent to Australia; the list goes on and on.
Pa dokle smo stigli u tome? Počastvovan sam da mogu da vam saopštim da je naše tromilijardito seme -- to je tri hiljade milionito seme -- sada uskladišteno. To predstvalja 10 posto svih biljnih vrsta na planeti, 24000 vrsta je osigurano, a osiguraćemo 30000 vrsta do sledeće godine, ukoliko dođemo do novca. A do 2020. godine računamo da će taj procenat doći do 25 posto. To nisu samo žitarice, to ste možda videli u Svalbardu u Norveškoj -- odličan posao su tamo uradili. Ovo je barem 100 puta veći projekat. Imamo hiljade kolekcija koje su poslate širom sveta: vrste koje su tolerantne na sušne uslove koje smo poslali u Pakistan i Egipat, u Sjedinjene Države stižu vrste koje su naročito efektne u fotosintezi, vrste koje su tolerantne na ispašu poslate su u Australiju, i nema kraja toj listi.
These seeds are used for restoration. So in habitats that have already been damaged, like the tall grass prairie here in the USA, or in mined land in various countries, restoration is already happening because of these species -- and because of this collection. Some of these plants, like the ones on the bottom to the left of your screen, they are down to the last few remaining members. The one where the guy is collecting seeds there on the truck, that is down to about 30 last remaining trees. Fantastically useful plant, both for protein and for medicine.
Ova semena se koriste za obnovu. Na staništima koja su već oštećena, kao što su prerije sa visokom travom ovde u SAD-u, ili u područjima rudnika u raznim državama, obnova se već sada dešava zahvaljujući ovim vrstama -- i zahvaljujući ovoj kolekciji. Populacija nekih od ovih biljaka, kao što su ove sa donje leve strane ekrana, se smanjila na samo nekoliko preostalih primeraka. Vrsta čije seme čovek sakuplja sa kamiona, ima još samo oko 30 preostalih primeraka. Te biljke su neverovatno korisne, kao izvori proteina i kao lekovi.
We have training going on in China, in the USA, and many other countries. How much does it cost? 2,800 dollars per species is the average. I think that's cheap, at the price. And that gets you all the scientific data that goes with it. The future research is "How can we find the genetic and molecular markers for the viability of seeds, without having to plant them every 10 years?" And we're almost there. Thank you very much. (Applause)
Organizovali smo obučavanje u Kini, u SAD-u, i u mnogim drugim državama. Koliko to košta? Prosečna cena po vrsti je 2800 dolara. Ja mislim da je to jeftino, ako pogledate ulog. Ovim dobijate i sve neophodne naučne podatke. Pitanje kojim ćemo se baviti u budućnosti je: "Kako pronaći genetičke i molekularne markere koji određuju vijabilnost semena, bez zasađivanja biljaka svakih 10 godina?" Skoro smo stigli do te tačke. Hvala vam mnogo. (Aplauz)