Nobel prize winners are warning Donald Trump is one of the biggest threats to humanity

Donald Trump is one of the biggest threats to humankind, according to some of the most intelligent people in the world.

Fifty recipients of the Nobel prize – the world’s most prestigious scientific accolade – were asked about the greatest issues and threats facing the world today.

Six per cent of the Nobel winners said that the ignorance of political leaders was the current biggest threat to humanity, with two singling out Trump in particular as a major concern.

A considerable number of the Nobel laureates reported their ‘disdain’ for The President and threat he poses to scientific progress when answering the questions.

Peter Agre, the winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2003 told Times Higher Education that Trump is ‘ extraordinarily uninformed and bad-natured’ and ‘flaunts his ignorance’ to appeal to a certain set of voters.
‘Trump could play a villain in a Batman movie – everything he does is wicked or selfish,’ said Agre.

Environmental issues including global warming and overpopulation were identified as being the number one threat to the world, with 34% identifying this as the gravest issue.

One U.S. Laureate addressed the isubject, as well as the added pressure of the President’s climate scepticism.

He said: ‘ Climate change and [providing] sufficient food and fresh water for the growing global population are serious problems facing humankind.

‘Science is needed to address these problems, and also to educate the public to create the political will to solve these problems.’

Nuclear war was the second biggest issue, followed next by drug resistance.

The rise of populism and political polarisation was also addressed, with 40% of the Nobel winners surveyed calling the phenomena a ‘grave threat’ to humanity. Only 5% said it was no threat at all.

One laureate said: ‘It is a disaster when people start believing things that are false and, even worse, when governments induce them to believe facts that are evidently wrong and ignore all evidence-based, scientifically proven data.’

The 11 biggest threats to humanity according to winners of the Nobel Prize

1. Environmental concerns

2. Nuclear war

3. Disease and drug resistance

4. Selfishness, dishonesty and lack of humanity

5. Ignorance and distortion of the truth

6. Terrorism and fundamentalism

7. Donald Trump and ignorant world leaders

8. Artificial intelligence

9. Inequality

10. Drugs

11. Facebook