Eating human corpses ‘could solve global warming crisis’, mad scientist claims
CANNIBALISM is being proposed by a Swedish scientist as a possible way to combat the negative impacts of climate change.
The researcher believes that eating human flesh from dead bodies could be the only solution to future food shortages and thinks people reluctant to try it are being selfish.
Speaking at a summit, Stockholm School of Economics professor and researcher Magnus Soderlund reportedly said that society needs to "awaken to the idea" that eating the flesh of dead people could help save the human race.
Soderlund argued his point during a panel talk called “Can you Imagine Eating Human Flesh?”.
He believes taboos surrounding eating human meat will change over time if people just tried it.
Soderlund told Sweden's TV4 that he was hesitant but open to the idea of human flesh.
He said: "I feel somewhat hesitant but to not appear overly conservative…I’d have to say….I’d be open to at least tasting it."
He thinks that if humans were slowly introduced to the idea of eating dead people then they may consider it.
However, he did suggest that eating pets or insects could be more plausible options of new food sources.
Unbelievably, 8% of the audience watching a TV interview with Soderlund on Swedish channel TV4 said they would be willing to try human flesh.
Soderlund plans to lecture more on the topic in the future.
The scientist also needs to consider that humans eating other humans has not ended well in the past.
Kuru disease is a very rare, incurable and fatal neurodegenerative disease that used to be common among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea because they would eat their dead.
The cultural practice took place as a form of showing respect to the dead by not allowing them to be consumed by worms.
Kuru is caused by an infectious protein in contaminated brain tissue and spreads if people eat the brain tissue.
Although cannibalism among the people of New Guinea stopped in 1960, before this the women and children commonly ate the brains of cooked dead people and so where more likely to have the disease.
Kuru would infect their brains and then the people who ate them when they died could also be infected.
The disease is known as "laughing sickness" because it can cause pathological fits of laughter as well as tremors and a loss of co-ordination.
Climate change explained
Here's the basic facts...
- Scientists have lots of evidence to show that the Earth’s climate is rapidly changing due to human activity
- Climate change will result in problems like global warming, greater risk of flooding, droughts and regular heatwaves
- Each of the last three decades have been hotter than the previous one and 17 of the 18 warmest years on record have happened during the 21st century
- The Earth only needs to increase by a few degrees for it to spell disaster
- The oceans are already warming, polar ice and glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising and we’re seeing more extreme weather events
- In 2015, almost all of the world's nations signed a deal called the Paris Agreement which set out ways in which they could tackle climate change and try to keep temperatures below 2C
TOP STORIES IN SCIENCE
In other news, seaside towns have been ‘urged to move inland’ as climate chaos now means a ‘retreat’ is needed, top scientists warn.
Some scientists have a plan to stop climate change by hacking Earth's weather with a giant floating aerosol.
And, human ancestors in Spain hunted and ate one another to survive because they were ‘easier to catch than animals’, according to research.
What do you think of this cannibal proposal? Let us know in the comments...
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]