Hawkings - Departure is of the Essence

Stephen Hawking recently affirmed his stance on space colonization.
In an interview with BigThink he declared the importance of finding a suitable habitat for our species to escape impending doom:
"if we can avoid disaster in the next 2 centuries,
our species should be safe as we spread into space"
He explained that as our knowledge & technology advances, we have grown capable of altering the environment for better or worse.
Pointing out that we still harbor in our genetic code selfish and aggressive instincts which were once beneficial to our survival but now may be key in our downfall.
He added:
"it will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years,
let alone the next thousand or million"

The article sited the fact that there remains 22,600 nukes stockpiled,
7,770 (unlucky number in this case) which are operational.
Not to mention the dangers imposed by asteroid, black hole, or supernova.

In 2006 Hawking explained we could possibly have a base on the moon in 20 years,
and a colony on mars.
More recently Hawkings cautioned of the threat aliens we strive to contact may pose
and has outlined 3 plausible ideas for time travel to help navigate our means of escape,
which include: wormholes, black holes, and super fast acceleration.

Unfortunately for the human race, space exploration increasingly faces woes due to our crippling economy, especially when mixed with an influx of delays due to the need for necessary repairs.