diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 671090519..85fa21354 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Package: sf
-Version: 0.9-9
+Version: 1.0-0
 Title: Simple Features for R
 Authors@R:
     c(person(given = "Edzer",
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 78fdc154f..170bde9d5 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+# version 1.0-0
+
+* use `s2` as default geometry back-end when coordinates are ellipsoidal, this can
+  be suppressed by setting environment variable `_SF_USE_S2` to `false`; #1649
+
 # version 0.9-9
 
 * `st_write` gains an argument `config_options` to set GDAL config options; #1618
diff --git a/R/init.R b/R/init.R
index 7696ab6f3..79e005604 100644
--- a/R/init.R
+++ b/R/init.R
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ pathGrob <- NULL
 		}
 	} # nocov end
 	load_gdal() 
-	assign(".sf.use_s2", Sys.getenv("_SF_USE_S2") == "true", envir=.sf_cache)
+	assign(".sf.use_s2", !(Sys.getenv("_SF_USE_S2") == "false"), envir=.sf_cache)
 }
 
 .onUnload = function(libname, pkgname) {