Joel Kontinen
Stephen Hawking likes being in the news. But often his speciality is news that could hardly be described as good or even pleasant.
He has kept on drumming that our time on planet Earth is about to end and we should search for a new planet.
Prof. Hawking has also warned of big bad aliens on at least two occasions.
And he sees artificial intelligence (AI) as a major threat to mankind.
Now, he has joined the global warning bandwagon. He warns that if we “don't curb irreversible climate change,” Earth could turn into a hot planet like Venus.
However, even Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the Pennsylvania State University, does not agree with Hawking.
Mann sent Live Science an email, saying:
"Hawking is taking some rhetorical license here Earth is further away from the sun than Venus and likely cannot experience a runaway greenhouse effect in the same sense as Venus — i.e. a literal boiling away of the oceans.”
Speculations nearly always get noticed, regardless of how little facts (if any) there are to give substance to them.
Source:
Ghose, Tia. 2017. Stephen Hawking: Earth Could Turn Into Hothouse Planet Like Venus. Live Science (5 July).
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