Category Archives: World’s Best Scientists

The nine boundaries we must not cross or we may go extinct

Preface. This post has excerpts from the famous paper by Rockström et al (2009) as well as a more recent proposal by Running (2012) on an easier measure of how close we’re coming to rendering the planet uninhabitable. The media … Continue reading

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E. O. Wilson to save humanity from extinction, get rid of religion

[ Below is an excerpt, out of order, from New Scientist’s 21 Jan 2015 interview with E.O. Wilson “Religious faith is dragging us down“. The extinctions we cause will kill us too, says the sociobiology pioneer – the best thing … Continue reading

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Yevgeny Chazov, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

11 Dec 1985. Nobel Lecture by Yevgeny Chazov, Nobel Peace prize winner in 1985. Nuclear war, unless it is prevented, would lead to the extinction of life on Earth and possibly in the Universe. Can we take such a risk? … Continue reading

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Michael Smith, Nobel Prize winner

10 Dec 1993. Michael Smith, winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1993, speech at the Nobel Banquet. I believe that Alfred Nobel, in contemplating this munificent act of the Bank and in contemplating what might happen in the next 100 … Continue reading

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R. K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

10 Dec 2007. Nobel Lecture by R. K. Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Oslo. Climate change is likely to lead to some irreversible impacts on biodiversity. There is medium confidence that approximately 20%–30% of species … Continue reading

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Christian de Duve, Nobel Prize Winner. Natural Selection will destroy us.

Clint Witchalls. 28 Feb 2011. Biology Nobelist: Natural selection will destroy us. NewScientist. We have evolved traits that will lead to humanity’s extinction, says Christian de Duve – so we must learn to overcome them We are the most successful … Continue reading

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Michael J. Benton, paleontologist: Runaway Greenhouse

Benton, M.J. Presidential Address 2007: The end-Permian mass extinction events on land in Russia. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association Volume 119, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 119-136 Conclusion: If the runaway greenhouse model is correct and explains perhaps the biggest crisis … Continue reading

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James Lovelock: We Can’t Save the Planet, it’s Too Late

30 Mar 2010. Lovelock: ‘We can’t save the planet’. Professor James Lovelock, the scientist who developed Gaia theory, has said it is too late to try and save the planet. BBC Radio. Below is a summary, the full audio interview … Continue reading

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Martin Rees, cosmologist: Will the Human Race Survive the 21st Century?

In his book “Our final century: Will the Human Race Survive the Twenty-first Century?: Martin Rees gives us at 50/50 chance of making it to 2100.  He thinks we’ve been lucky to survive even the past 50 years.  Some of … Continue reading

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John Gribbin, Astrophysicist. If we destroy ourselves, a grave injustice to the universe

Below are a few paragraphs from Hirshfeld’s excellent book review of:    John Gribbin. 2011. Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique. Humans are a miracle of blood, bone, and brain, a volatile mixture of compassion and brutality … Continue reading

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