“I like to have constructive conversations to ensure
they have at least heard a counterpoint view from
someone who is not screaming at them and making
them emotional. I say, ‘No, this is the consequence of
your view. You need to understand that concept.’ And
you know, sometimes I try to make them acknowledge
it. Sometimes they reply, ‘Yes, I understand that conse-
quence,’ or ‘I don’t care; it would be against my values.’
“The only ones I disrespect are the ones who are
evil. I mean, there are a few of those, but generally evil
people don’t seem to get elected. So the ones whom
some people think are evil are often those who simply
have a very different political point of view.”
We take a darker turn, not because the professor
wants to but I steer it that way. I need answers to the
questions I promised my friends in the pub I would
ask.
“What is the greatest threat to the Earth from space?”
When he hears the question, Schmidt becomes
chirpy, effervescent and even bouncy. “A really, really
big asteroid would create mayhem but the big risk,
which is inevitable, is that every year the nuclear reactor
in the Sun gets a tiny, tiny bit stronger. This is not what
causes climate change but it’s going to cause climatic
change in the future. So, 500 million years from now
the Sun is going to be a lot, lot hotter and Earth will not
be habitable. It’s actually a progression. Then there are
events when the Sun will get so big it’ll burn up the
Earth and we’re gone. That’s several billion years away.
“It’s pretty much inevitable, unless we create tech-
nology that puts a big shield around the Earth progres-
sively blocking out more and more sunlight over time.
That’ll give us another billion years, probably. But at
some point it probably won’t be enough.”
“How do you sleep at night?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he answers softly. “You just come to
terms with it. That’s why I go and look at the sky and
think about it.”
“Is there anything that could threaten us sooner?”
Schmidt’s lips curl inwards. “A giant comet could
be on its way right now and we would be looking at it
and be like, “Oh crap! It’s very close to the Earth.” The
problem with comets is they shoot stuff out – that’s
why they’re comets. Their tails are almost like a little
rocket, so you’re never quite sure where they’re going
to go. If one came in very fast, from way out there, it’d
be almost impossible to get a rocket to it and do
anything meaningful. You might get enough nuclear
power onto it [but] you probably wouldn’t have enough
time, and if that thing hit directly it would be another
Credit: ANU MAY 2016| || 29