Topics: Climate Change, Bill Gates, World News
An expert has lifted the lid on how the human race could meet its eventual demise which might shock you.
In an apparent revised position, climate change is said to no longer be considered the leading factor that threatens our existence.
Despite spending swathes of his $120 billion net worth trying to fight the cause, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently claimed climate change 'will not lead to humanity's demise' and is instead urging world leaders to focus on other problems, like health and poverty.
Gates said the United Nation's 'doomsday outlook' is too heavily focused on short-term issues like emissions instead of ways to improve lives in the here and now.
Advert
Experts have since weighed in on the bleak reality that us Earthlings could be much more likely to bring about our own annihilation before climate change can.
According to several scientists who analyze 'existential risks', nuclear war currently stands as the main threat for us and this precious planet we call home.
Dr Rhys Crilley, an expert in international relations from the University of Glasgow, UK, told Daily Mail that it all boils down to 'time'.
"Climate change unfolds over decades," he explained, while nuclear attacks have the power to 'end civilization in the space of a few hours'.
"Climate change is a slow-burning crisis that's already reshaping our world but will get worse in the future, whilst nuclear weapons pose the possibility of instant, total devastation for the planet," he added.
While a nuclear apocalypse has always been a lurking threat, experts are becoming increasingly concerned since using the weapons is no longer out of the realms of possibility.
Dr Crilley continued: "These risks are not theoretical: the weapons exist, the tensions between nuclear-armed states are worsening, and it seems that nuclear weapon states are increasingly willing to use force to get what they want whilst threatening to use nuclear weapons.
"On top of this, we know that accidents and miscalculations happen, and that it was largely down to luck that there was no nuclear conflict during the Cold War."
Even in a so-called 'small' conflict of 100 warheads, research shows it would cause the global food supply to collapse and lead to the mass starvation of two billion people in two years.
"There are over 12,000 nuclear warheads in the combined arsenals of the nuclear weapon states, so large-scale nuclear war would likely be an extinction event for the planet," the expert continued.
"It's clear to me that preventing nuclear war remains one of humanity's most urgent responsibilities."
The insight comes as the 70-year-old tech billionaire wrote in an open letter prior to the upcoming UN COP30 climate summit in Brazil that the 'biggest problems' the human race is facing comes down to 'poverty and disease.'
However, Gates warned climate change still poses a threat, adding it will 'hurt poor people more than anyone else' but is not 'the biggest threat to their lives and welfare'.
"To be clear: Climate change is a very important problem," he continued. "It needs to be solved, along with other problems like malaria and malnutrition. Every tenth of a degree of heating that we prevent is hugely beneficial because a stable climate makes it easier to improve people’s lives."
