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English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking had a clear message for audiences at the Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Tuesday, saying " I am convinced that humans need to leave earth".
Hawking detailed the challenges we face if we remain earth bound: "resources are being drained at an alarming rate, we have given our planet the disastrous gift of climate change, rising temperatures, reduction of the polar ice caps, deforestation" positing that to find a home elsewhere in the galaxy may be "the only thing that saves us from ourselves".
Hawking said he was "not denying the importance of fighting climate change and global warming, unlike Donald Trump" but he had hopes the race for a home in space would "unite competitive nations in a single goal to face a common challenge for us all."