10 Times Star Trek Foretold The Apocalypse
4. Oh, Go On, Just One More Soong!
What happens if no one brings a sentient microorganism back from Io? Evil Jean-Luc, that's what happens! That and the end of any hope to "heal the ocean and clean the sky". In reality, it's already too late for the Europa Mission to save us from ecological disaster. If we still can't be our own kinds of Renée Picard and Ricardo, however, I'm afraid the alternative is another wrong Soong.
In the alternate timeline of Star Trek: Picard's second season, Earth seemed to exist in an almost permanent state of apocalypse. There, instead of finding a permanent solution to the climate crisis, they had "kept the corpse on life support," as Q put it, under a gigantic forcefield dome. Provider of the technology, and the "Father of the Future" from the 21st century, was the not very pleasant, but certainly prolific, Doctor Adam Soong.
There's also the totalitarian in the room. Ol' J.L.'s château had been transformed into a rancid reliquary for the skulls of everyone from Sarek to Martok, through Dukat, a Ferengi, and a Borg, amongst others. "A safe galaxy is a human galaxy" was then the Soong-bestowed slogan for the Confederation of Earth in this effed-up vision of 2401. And let's not forget 'Project Khan'!