If the planet isn't poisoned more and if workers (and the public in general) aren't killed for arbitrary reasons on a whim, ascension is canceled. 
If the planet isn't poisoned more and if workers (and the public in general) aren't killed for arbitrary reasons on a whim, ascension is canceled.
He's treating society and the planet like some speedrun of a Civilization game where the player gets lazy, allows everything to deteriorate, and just pounds the "end turn" button while dumping everything into the Le Science Victory win condition.
Except such a thing doesn't fucking exist but he's doing it anyway.