Abandon Earth or face extinction: Hawking

The human race will become extinct unless it leaves Earth and colonises space within the next two centuries, according to Prof Stephen Hawking, the world's most famous astrophysicist. In an interview with the portal 'Big Think', professor Hawking has said he's an "optimist" but the next few hundred years had to be negotiated carefully if the human race is to survive.

Professor Hawking has warned that mankind was entering "an increasingly dangerous period of our history". "Our population and use of the finite resources of planet Earth and growing exponentially along without technical ability to change the environment for good and ill. But our genetic code carries selfish and aggressive instincts that were a survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next 100 years let alone the next thousand or a million. Our only chance of long term survival is not to remain on Earth but to spread into space.

http://science-tech-update.blogspot.com/2011/04/abandon-earth-or-face-extinction.html