Just where, Mr. Hawking, do you suggest we go?
"One of these days Alice. POW! To the moon, Alice, to the moon."
If he’s concerned about problems that are sociological in nature, they’ll be with us no matter where we’re living.
If he’s concerned about problems in our physical environment, they’re going to be a hell of a lot easier to solve in our present location, where we are already present, with a viable atmosphere and oodles of resources, than they would be on any extraterrestrial site at which all the factors above would be major problems.
If he’s worried about disasters on a cosmological scale (asteroid impact, etc.), those can be worked on in the background; long-range, we should have plenty of time to prepare, and if it happens short-range, we’re screwed anyway.
How a guy so much smarter than me can be so much dumber just amazes me.
I'm sure he didn't have the closest star in mind. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf. In the next 30,000 or more years Ross 248 will be the closest star. It is also a red dwarf. Looks like we better get working on warp drive if Hawking's comments are to make any sense.