Our species faces a pivotal moment in human history. Either we develop the technology to safely harness the energy needed to escape our planet, or we kill ourselves in some great cataclysm, a stark new study claims.
But, the new paper argues, if we can achieve the former and avoid the latter, then we might just become a truly interplanetary species in as little as 200 years.
"The Earth is a tiny dot surrounded by darkness," study lead author Jonathan Jiang, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Live Science. "Our current understanding of physics tells us that we are trapped on this tiny rock with limited resources."
To leave our planet for good, humans need to drastically ramp up the use of nuclear and renewable energy, and simultaneously safeguard those energy sources from being used for malicious purposes.
And the next few decades will prove critical: If humanity can safely transition away from fossil fuels, it might just have a shot, the study suggests.
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