Science & Technology

Brian Cox: 'stupidity' is our biggest threat

By T.K. Randall
September 30, 2014 ·  45 comments

Professor Brian Cox giving a talk at the University of Essex. Image Credit: University of Essex When we think of apocalyptic scenarios we tend to focus on things like supervolcano eruptions, asteroid impacts or viral pandemics, but according to physicist Brian Cox it is our own stupidity as a species that generally underlines all other threats to our survival.

In particular Prof Cox maintains that there is a distinct lack of action from world leaders with regard to tackling environmental issues and too great an emphasis on meaningless political conflicts."If there's just this one planet on which there's any meaning, how would you arrange your affairs?" he asked. "Would you really sit there and divide it up into lots of autonomous regions and spend a lot of money making sure they don't invade each other ? Or would you be more concerned with protecting civilization as a whole, such as making sure we're not going to get wiped out by a big space rock."

The physicist also warned that a lack of investment in space exploration could be disastrous.

"It won't turn out well for us if we sit here on Earth and don't bother with space," he said. "The Apollo astronauts thought we'd be on Mars by now, and that we'd have Moon bases by the 80s. America would be in a far better position now had they done it."

Source: Wales Online | Comments (45)

Tags: Brian Cox, Humanity