You may find this to be an interesting little article...
Reuters / Sheryl Nadler wrote: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."
Space exploration has however been struggling with the global financial crisis and has too proven subject to spending cuts. In particular NASA's planetary science budget, which is seen as crucial to finding habitable planets, was slashed by $300 million this year.
I don't buy into all the controlling propaganda about resources and population, but I completely agree that we need to expand off this little rock. Right now we have all our eggs in one basket, and because of short sighted politicians and a generally self-centred populace, we have slowed down to a snails pace on real progress. One major natural disaster, whether it's volcanic, solar flare, polar flip or meteor hit, and we're gone... Set up a handful of even small self-sufficient colonies and our species might, just might, manage to do the things some of us have always dreamt we were capable of.
