Hawking: people will become extinct on Earth within the millennium.

[dixiegrrrrl]

Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking warns human beings won’t survive “without escaping” from the “fragile” planet. His gloomy forecast is people will become extinct on Earth within current the millennium.

Speaking at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles the 71-year-old scientist called for further exploration of space to guarantee the future of mankind, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

"We must continue to go into space for humanity. If you understand how the universe operates, you control it in a way," Professor Hawking said, adding that "we won't survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet."

http://rt.com/news/earth-hawking-mankind-escape-702/

What do you think? Is his timeline is too long?

[Vincardog]

1. I think Humans will not survive the century.

[Shivering Jemmy]

28. Improbable

Humans are very adaptable to rapid change. We're bad at long term change. But I have no doubt some portion of humanity will find a way to survive the next 87 years. There's too damn many of us to go extinct that rapidly.

[Vincardog]

32. Not if we turn the oceans acid and kill off the foundation of life. I hope you are right but

fear I am.

[Warren DeMontague]

38. Hell, I doubt we'll survive the night.

The phone keeps ringing and THE CALLS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!

[Drale]

2. Hawking is a very smart man but

I think the human race is very resilient and we will survive pretty much anything. Now that's not to say that there will not be a huge die off but humanity will survive

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Species, from the geological record, have an average of 100,000 years

and most of life on Earth, like 99%, has already gone extinct. I am talking of the whole 4.5 Billion years of history, not just the modern geological era.

Another fun fact. we are in the middle of the Great Holocene Extinction, top species (we are) tend not to survive those.

Oh and race is a term I have a problem with.

Now humans might EVOLVE into something else, like all life on Earth has done, but quite frankly changes are moving way too fast with the environment.

[winter is coming]

3. It's certainly possible. Intelligent life has already disappeared from DC. n/t

[Prism]

4. Civilization and species are two different things

Our civilization might come in for rough times, both natural and man made, but the species is bright enough to subsist even if we face a civilizational collapse.

Extinction is a strong word barring some cataclysmic natural event.

[AverageJoe90]

35. That's pretty much a given, really.

I do occasionally worry about Yellowstone going off or an Apophis-type asteroid hitting us; that, along with any full-scale nuclear war scenarios that might have happened during the Cold War, very well could cause a total collapse of global civilization as we know it.....but none of these are likely, and global warming isn't going to be enough to cause such by itself(despite the cries of our resident wannabe Cassandras), no matter which plausible scenario plays out.

[Quantess]

5. If we could pull off a mass exodus to another planet, or whatever he is suggesting,

then we could figure out how to live sustainably on earth.

I personally doubt either great solution will happen. I think we'll run the earth ragged and die off, leaving cockroaches and ants to inherit the earth.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. It could be a bit long. Hard to say as there are so many

variables. Will we finally have that overdue monster pandemic? Will unseen feedback loops escalate the melting of the glaciers and ice at the poles? Will weather patterns become so extreme that lack of rainfall makes feeding our population impossible? Will some nutcase open the nuclear genie's lamp again?



I do agree that he is right. If we don't send at least some of us off-planet then the race in general will go extinct. Most species do at one time or another.

[HereSince1628]

7. Giving smart people credibility outside their expertise is usually a mistake

And btw I'm fine with the Chinese or Indians using their new found trillions on space colonization.

[EOTE]

8. That honestly makes me feel a lot better.

I was under the impression we might not make it through the next century. I think if we can make it through the next 100 years, we'll be able to make it off the planet.

On another note, Stephen Hawking is 71? That's awesome. I remember hearing that he never thought he'd make it through his 30s.

[CokeMachine]

9. I won't survive the next century and I'm positive of that.

[Kelvin Mace]

17. Ah, come on, give it a try

I plan on living forever.

So far, so good....

[CokeMachine]

24. Thanks,

Yes I can, Yes I can, Yes I can -- maybe

[Scootaloo]

31. If you pull it off, you have a badass soundtrack

[montanto]

11. My bet is more than 100, less than 200.

[Warpy]

12. I think he's confusing his own imminent death

with the death of the human species. While we will eventually become extinct, I don't see it happening quite that quickly barring the type of planetary disaster that extinguishes all life.

Even if global warming becomes the runaway phenomenon some alarmists think it will, humanity will still likely cling to Arctic islands and Antarctica.

Now if he'd said we'd be extinct in a million years, the odds of that go up.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Will the extinction be televised?

[The2ndWheel]

14. It's always about the want to control

It's the foundation of progress.

[progressoid]

15. Most people can't think beyond a few years into the future.

Nobody wants to make sacrifices for future generations.

Yeah, if we continue like this, it's over for us.

[Yavin4]

16. This is why we need guns.

We may need to shoot the planet in order to survive.

[OneGrassRoot]

19. LOL...

Okay, you gave me my first laugh-out-loud moment of the day.

Thanks.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

21. Chortle. nt

[lovuian]

18. In Britain the Bees are going extinct

[marybourg]

27. I have a great idea!

They can import some of those fantasticly assertive honey-making bees from Africa! What could go wrong?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

20. Well, that would be depressing.

Homo Sapiens exist for less than a million years, and we've only been civilized for 10,000.

In other words, a quick blip on this planet's multi billion year history.

But hey, it was a fun ride.

[Go Vols]

22. I don't put much stock

in what Mr. Hawking says after he backpedaled on his black hole theory.

[Initech]

23. George Carlin saw this many years ago:

[truegrit44]

25. I have always loved Carlin, thanks for posting this....

This man has more rational sense then every politician combined in this country.

[Zorra]

26. Earth First! We'll destroy the other planets later.

The heck with space. If people can't learn to take care of their shit on this planet, extinction is the honorable option.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. That has bothered me for years and years.

Back in the 70's, reading Rachel Carson and Paul Tillich and Paul Erlich ( The Population Bomb), seeing what was already happening to the planet....
I was very aware there was this idea out there that "mankind"' could use the space program to find other habitable planets so we could spread to other places in the universe once we had trashed this blue globe sufficiently.

[Coyotl]

30. He's losing it at 71. Going into space, how nuts can a scientist be?

There is no way humans can survive in space. Firing rockets into space is a threat to the atmosphere already, as are jet travel and automobile emissions. If humans want to survive, they must diminish population and get back into harmony with the natural system.

[Shivering Jemmy]

36. Humans have never been in balance with nature

And what's more nature is never in balance with itself.

[Cali_Democrat]

33. He's finally lost it

[AverageJoe90]

34. Hawking may be a genius, but even geniuses get it wrong sometimes.

And this is definitely one of those times; sorry, doomsters, but barring a K/T event or gamma ray burst, or any other type of catastrophe that is truly cosmic in scale, we ain't going extinct anytime soon, and that's geologically speaking, mind you.

[lebeckford]

37. I think a lot sooner

Man has the inherent ability to make the same historical mistakes over and over again.
He is greedy, jealous, wasteful, and his own worst enemy, I we don't kill each other in a war, we will destroy the environment if a natural does not get rid of us first.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. "Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn."

"Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death."

[dixiegrrrrl]

42. I cannot think of a more accurate quote.

Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours.

Back in teh 70's, when The Population Bomb made such a furor, geometric progression of pop. numbers alone was an alarming fact.

[Warren DeMontague]

40. I think in 1000 years there is a good chance that every human currently alive, will be dead.

I know, it's upsetting to consider, but it's quite possible.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. Actually, he said we need to move on from being a single planet species. And he's right.

It's the smart thing to do, for long-term survival.

And we will.

But that's a long-ass way from "Stephen Hawking says wur doooomed!!!!"