By Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), British genius, the leading most scientist in all the spheres in contemporary time with focus on astrophysics has left the planet earth. A man with severe body debility, he contracted ALS, a form of motor neurone disease when he was about 21 years young person, continued with nerves of steel and became the epitome of strongest will power and the most relevant guide to people of the globe. He pioneered the science of space with new insights as proposed colonization of earth by the natural resource starved aliens; who in his opinion will move to this planet earth to survive as their resource deplete. He provided human beings new knowledge which was real and in his own words there is always danger of illusion of knowledge, not of the ignorance.
This illusion of knowledge is main driver of human existence about which he warned all of us. The man has established IPCC and has concluded Paris agreement on climate change, but the reality is that nothing substantial has been done in the field of climate change to contain its adverse impacts. Climate change is the most potent negative force which is making this earth almost extinct,and the living ones with no hope for solution are worried.
Stephen Hawking is the greatest scientist of this age who warned about the impact of climate change. He clearly surmised with his research acumen that a day will arrive when planet earth will become like planet Venus which once used to be like planet earth but climate changes made the Venus uninhabitable. He concluded that emission of Green House Gases were major factor to destroy the habitable conditions in sister planet Venus and today it is a planet with high temperature and High wind velocity where no life is possible, albeit it might have existed somewhere in past.
He warned that earth is to experience the same fate. He wrote A Brief History of Time to un reveal the truths about time and inferred at one point that universe was governed by the fixed natural laws and none can violate it, not even the supreme power.
Truth is that men are in constant process of destroying the resource of the planet. It cannot be understood in any way as why human beings are so blind to the dangers which are about to come in the form extreme weather phenomenon? This is just loss of understanding about the universe, the natural laws, the climate and the real destiny of humanity. Stephen Hawking warned about all these things.
He was fierce critic of US policies on climate change. He criticized the US decision to leave the Paris Agreement which had brought a ray of hope that in near future the earth’s temperature could be reduced to 1.50 to 20 C. but US decision was serious blow to this effort. US being the biggest pollution creator laid the burden on developing countries and pushed the earth in the zone of extreme weather conditions and associated problems. Hawkins analyzed it in holistic manner and called US President’s decision as the most serious and wrong decision which this world had seen.
He is prophetic scientist who has predicted that the way climate change has come to play a decisive negative role in the lives of the people; it will become almost impossible in next 2 or 3 centuries to live on this planet. Human population will have to find other options to survive; as to move to some other planets where such extreme conditions do not exist.
Stephen Hawking ‘s death is therefore a grave loss as a person who talked without fear, with strong will power and was prophetic in sayings is not anymore amidst us but his knowledge and warnings are here to stay.
The time is to reflect back on his ideas on climate change and its impact on the human society and planet earth. The time is to reflect on several other concepts and theories which he gave. His sayings are important as no other individual in any other field has talked about climate change with so much analytical and scientific approach and who is also a prophetic scientist as he predicts the future. His research outputs are relevant to the present and coming generations though human society is unaware about the dangers which loom large, about which he warned the leaders and decision makers.
The best tribute for him is only to propagate his scientific ideas to those who are unaware about these oracles. Among these the most important is to disseminate his scientific thoughts about the climate change.
Passing away of Stephen Hawking brings lots of responsibilities over all the inhabitants of this planet. His voices are gold and guidelines are with divine truths. These should be brought into main agenda of discussions and world leader need to follow his sayings, common person should also be aware about his ideas and live accordingly.
Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava is associated with CSJM University and CSSP, Kanpur. e mail
