A map of the world from an atlas which concentrates on population rather than land mass released last year. The Earth's population is due to hit 7bn by next year

Doomsday will be decided in 2014, not 2012, according to an Australian scientist who says that if we keep doing what we’re going, Drill-Baby-Drilling and having lots of babies, it’s the end of the human race in about 100 years.   Seriously, I wonder if we will last that long.  He also claims that attempts to stop climate change will not stop our extinction, only buy us time. Well he doesn’t have to worry about that, because the United States isn’t going to do anything about climate change, thanks to our obstructionist right-wing politicians.  Some of them are still busy denying climate change, like they deny evolution, and claim that dinosaurs lived with people.  In other words, they suffer from serious science-backwardness,  and the sheer force of it just might lead to our demise.   Here’s to “Livin’ la Vida Loca” while we still can. From the Daily Mail:

As the scientist who helped eradicate smallpox he certainly know a thing or two about extinction.

And now Professor Frank Fenner, emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, has predicted that the human race will be extinct within the next 100 years.

He has claimed that the human race will be unable to survive a population explosion and ‘unbridled consumption.’

Fenner told The Australian newspaper that ‘homo sapiens will become extinct, perhaps within 100 years.’

‘A lot of other animals will, too,’ he added.  ‘It’s an irreversible situation. I think it’s too late. I try not to express that because people are trying to do something, but they keep putting it off.’ Since humans entered an unofficial scientific period known as the Anthropocene – the time since industrialisation – we have had an effect on the planet that rivals any ice age or comet impact, he said.

Fenner, 95, has won awards for his work in helping eradicate the variola virus that causes smallpox and has written or co-written 22 books.

He announced the eradication of the disease to the World Health Assembly in 1980 and it is still regarded as one of the World Health Organisation’s greatest achievements  He was also heavily involved in helping to control Australia’s myxomatosis problem in rabbits.

Last year official UN figures estimated that the world’s population is currently 6.8 billion. It is predicted to exceed seven billion by the end of 2011.

Fenner blames the onset of climate change for the human race’s imminent demise. He said: ‘We’ll undergo the same fate as the people on Easter Island. ‘Climate change is just at the very beginning. But we’re seeing remarkable changes in the weather [...]