This little blue planet we live on will one day become our worst enemy.
On a recent visit to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, British physicist Stephen Hawking warned that humanity may not make it to the next millennium, unless we find a way to escape earth before it's too late. “We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet,” Hawking said.
At this point, our options are pretty slim: the next planet that may be suitable for some form of colonization is Mars; other than that, we may be looking at life in space stations, on the moon, or outside of our solar system - if we can make it in time.
“We must continue to go into space for humanity," he said. "If you understand how the universe operates, you control it in a way."
Earth is delicate, and will only take so much more of our battering before it bites back.
[via CNET]
