Author: Umbrax
It is time to leave Earth.
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 @ 10:48 am
Stephen Hawking recently spoke about the survival of mankind.
“It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,” Hawking said. “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.”
Hearing something like this from the world’s greatest mind really perks up the ears.
Seeking out “new worlds” has been part of our nature for a long time. Man has spread to every corner of the Earth searching for new resources.
Today our population is more than 6.5 billion. The human population has really exploded from the 1800’s when there were only 1 billion people using Earths recourses.
The UN estimates that by 2050 there will be 8.9 billion people on this Earth.
How long can the Earth sustain our rising population?
I agree it is time we focused on reaching out to find new worlds as our ancestors did.
Hawking said during a conference in Hong Kong that humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years.
40 years from now on Mars…
That will be 2046 when we are close to that 8.9 billion mark.
Maybe in 100 years (if we are still around) we will find another Earth like planet and have reasonable means to get there.
If our population continues this trend our population in 2106 will be 14.2 billion.
Unless our life style dramatically changes by then I can’t see how the Earth’s resources will sustain this population.
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