“Fast-forward 1,000 years, the Earth will be geoengineered,” he said. “The entire climate will be regulated like a modern house—no question.” The climate may get screwed up in new ways as scientists attempt to turn the planet’s temperature dial down. But “if it survives, humanity is simply going to do this.”

That’s a neat idea but at the rate we’re moving we’re going to kill ourselves off well before we figure out how to do anything approaching geoengineering effectively.