Given that we havent figured fusion out after a half century and no other alternative we have has the potential to produce more than a fraction of the energy we're now getting from fossil fuels, I don't see humanity every going beyond a Type 0 civilization.
Given that fossil fuels have exploded the amount of food we can produce, and thus the human population, far beyond what is capable of being supported without said finite petrochemicals and fuels, I think we're orders of magnitude much more likley to contract as a species over time.
....
So with that having been said, I wholly agree with Michio Kaku in his observation.
Every person on Earth should be employed to help effectively manage the Carbon Cycle. Without gaining mastery over the various facets of the carbon cycle, we won't be able to progress on to become a Type I civilization. It wouldn't be a very nice place to live anyway, if we never learn how to get carbon-based energy, carbon-based fuel, and biosequester carbon at the same time....
Biochar (sometimes called Terra Preta soil) is the missing part of the carbon cycle--an unbalanced cycle which we developed by using fossil fuels to unsustainably "support" agriculture. Biochar is a way to return the carbon from fossil fuels, which we've already used, back to the earth. This restores and enriches the land, and increases agricultural fertility and productivity.
Biochar could restore and rebalance our carbon-based energy economy, and it would then allow us to progress sustainably forward to become a Type I civilization.
