The Stephen Hawking Challenge

I often think about the question the brilliant astrophysicist, Stepehen Hawking, submitted to Yahoo Answers this past July.

How can the human race survive the next hundred years?

In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?

I am sure the Yahoo folks were happy to have Dr. Hawking as a celebrity quizzer because this question drew over 25,000 responses on the Yahoo Answers Blog. I like the wording of the question from two perspectives:
1) It gets my mind pondering the multiple issues that are threatening human existence.
- nuclear catastrophe (bombs, or terrorist plots to blow up nuclear reactors)
- pandemic viruses
- environmental collapse ( impacts of climate change - new ice age & massive species extinction, or mass death from toxic water and air....via human DNA disruption, or uncontrollable cancer rates. Combinations of multiple factors that will strip the earth of its protective atmosphere and turn the planet into another Venus.
- global economic depression that will lead to global war

2) Dr. Hawking puts a time frame (100 years) on the time we could have left if we don't reverse the current trends.

Prior to submitting the Yahoo question, Dr. Hawking was at a conference in Hong Kong, where he floated the idea that we should be working on sending people to the Moon and Mars to set up new colonies. Reason - we need to preserve humanity. Life on earth is in peril. Dr. Hawking didn't think humans would be able to survive beyond 100 years.

I think we need to prove Dr. Hawking wrong.