Greed will lead human race to destruction

Vernos Branco, Las Vegas

Monday, Aug. 9, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

The human species throughout its existence has moved from one place to another. Why? When settled in an area for any length of time, humans would use all the resources, pollute that space and move on.

Now that we have technology that can drill, explode and destroy the environment faster, we are running out of livable space. The phrase “take care of the planet” is misguided. The planet will be fine and heal; it is man who will vanish.

Stephen Hawking, the physicist, recently told the website Big Think that “we are entering an increasingly dangerous period in our history.”

Hawking noted that “there have been a number of times in the past when survival has been a question of touch and go,” such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the frequency of such occasions “is likely to increase in the future.”

Andrew Dermont of Big Think writes that “the planet is heating up, Earth’s population is expanding at an exponential rate, and the natural resources vital to our survival are running out faster than we can replace them with sustainable alternatives.”

“I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space,” Hawking told Big Think.

But if we develop the technology for space travel, we will do the same to that environment, until we learn not to. Man will become extinct due to his greed.