My Head May Explode!

From this source (hat tip to Midnight Rider):

Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists

Rising greenhouse emissions could tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by a Nasa-affiliated scientist and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future...

[...]

"Green" aliens might object to the environmental damage humans have caused on Earth and wipe us out to save the planet. "These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets," the authors write.

Even if we never make contact with extraterrestrials, the report argues that considering the potential scenarios may help to plot the future path of human civilisation, avoid collapse and achieve long-term survival.

Read the entire article and the comments HERE— if you can stand to do so. This madness is worse than the Y2K panic!

As if the above isn't enough, check out the following from Paul Krugman, 2008 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (hat tip to Blog de KingShamus):

If we discovered that space aliens were planning to attack, and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat, and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months.

King Shamus commented:

Look at how the supposedly elite institutions of achievement have beclowned themselves. Nobel laureates, NASA scientists; these used to be the top of the heap thinkers and doers of the world. Now, all they do is provide ever more pathetic and ever more fantastical justifications for big stupid blundering freedom-choking government.

Then they wonder why people constantly question the grand wisdom of the credentialed class.

Extraterrestrials aren't needed to destroy us, of course: