Viewpoint: ‘We are despoiling our planet’. Can we rescue humanity before it’s too late?

From now on, what we think as a planet is what our children get as a planet. However crucial policy and diplomacy may be, global agency ultimately requires that billions of micro-choices made every day by billions of human beings be (at least slightly) biased in favor of altruistic action. Whether human wills can be aligned (and planetary agency exerted) depends on the clarity of our collective thinking and how well the intent to apply that thinking is organized. As individuals we are acutely attuned to differences in each other’s psychologies. We know there are many situational reasons for action or inaction—but when we ask what moves populations to action or leaves them in inaction, we need to know what is common to large numbers of people.