Stephen Hawking: Greed And Stupidity Are What Will End The Human Race

[Nada Jung]

Stephen Hawking at Gonville & Caius College, CambridgeAz univerzum, ahogy Stephen Hawking látja / Flickr / CC 2.0

Physicist Stephen Hawking says pollution coupled with human greed and stupidity are still the biggest threats to humans.

In an appearance on the BBC, Stephen Hawking dived into the science and technology that humans will need if the species hopes to abandon Earth prior to a likely cataclysm in the not-so-distant future.

Hawkings remained convinced that the human race must find a “Planet B” in the next 100 years since it was diminishing the Earth’s resources faster than it can replace them.

Mr. Hawking blames human greed and stupidity for the coming human extinction.

“We certainly have not become less greedy or less stupid,” Hawking told Larry King last year.

“The population has grown by half a billion since our last meeting [six years prior], with no end in sight. At this rate, it will be eleven billion by 2100.”

According to Hawking, “more than 80% of inhabitants in urban areas are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution”, and the urgency of climate change simply cannot be overstated.

Maybe not surprisingly, Mr. Hawking has more hope for planet relocation than for a positive conclusion to the Earth’s incipient climate change catastrophe.

by JohnZambis