The idea of preserving Earth's most essential elements to keep them safe in the event of a catastrophe is not new - the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, for example, serves as a backup for over a million seeds to prevent their extinction.
Not far from there, another crucial backup exists: the Arctic World Archive (AWA), a joint initiative between Norwegian state-owned mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani (SNSK) and very-long-term digital preservation provider Piql AS.
