Hawking to Trump: Renounce Your Denial of Climate Change

In a recent sit-down with
WIRED UK, famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking sounded off on the ongoing anti-science movement.

“People distrust science because they don’t understand how it works,” Hawking said. “It seems as if we are now living in a time in which science and scientists are in danger of being held in low, and decreasing, esteem. This could have serious consequences. I am not sure why this should be as our society is increasingly governed by science and technology, yet fewer young people seem to want to take up science as a career.”

The conversation, naturally, led to his thoughts on
Donald Trump. If the genius scientist was ever given the chance to talk to the U.S. president, he would first ask him about his controversial ban of travelers from six mainly Muslim countries.

“This blanket ban is inefficient and prevents America from recruiting skilled people from these countries,” Hawking said.

Hawking then quipped, “I would also ask him to renounce his
denial of climate change. But again, I fear neither will happen as Trump continues to appease his electorate.”

Trump famously said that climate change is a “hoax” invented by the Chinese, as he and members of his political party and administration push the use of fossil fuels, which exacerbates dangerous global warming.

The wide-ranging interview with WIRED also covered Hawking’s thoughts on artificial intelligence, his worries over how big corporations like Facebook and Google control information, and the necessity of pursuing a rigorous space exploration program so that humans can find another inhabitable planet.

“Our Earth is becoming too small for us, global population is increasing at an alarming rate and we are in danger of self-destructing,” he warned.

Hawking is a
frequent critic of Trump. In July, he denounced the president’s controversial decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.

“Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid,” he said.

Stephen Hawking: We Have 100 Years to Find a New Planet https://t.co/q2G1HTRiBc @nytimesscience @guardianscience

— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) May 6, 2017