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…………………..THANKS FOR THAT STEPHEN

Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has said mankind must move to outer space within a century to survive.

Nice thought for the start of the month eh?

In an interview Hawking says threats to the existence of the human race such as war, resource depletion and overpopulation meant it was at its greater risk ever.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million," he said.

Great. Cheered me up no end that little missive, Stephen. I’ve just redecorated too.

It gets better.

"Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space.

"We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space.”

This from the same man who, earlier this year, warned that exploring space may not be entirely without risk and that humans should be wary about making contact with alien life forms as they may not be friendly.

OK. A few thoughts occur. Indulge me for a moment.

Stephen, with the greatest of respect for a man clearly light-years ahead of me in intellect and simple, homely good looks, please stop it. Now.

I realise that musing scientifically about the future and how the magnetism of space may provide a new home for many of us at some post-apocolyptic point on the horizon is what you do but, really, I don’t need to be force-fed the grim details of mankind’s potential demise while I’m eating my Bitesize Shredded Wheat.

If all you have is bad news, then stop sharing it with us. Harbingers of doom are never popular people you know. We used to burn them at the stake in centuries past.

Wars, you say? They’ve come and gone. The race is still here. Surviving and living. It’s the Human condition you know. We fight because we can’t communicate without anger.

I don’t want to live on the moon, forced to wear a ridiculous air-tight, fart-proof suit, made to eat food-flavoured toothpaste and ordered to refer to everyone by military rank. Morning Captain Dad! That’s not life. That’s surviving.

The Human Being is designed to live, not just to be.

By Adam Moss, News Editor