ABSTRACT
Realistic goals around climate change have to get the timescale right and focus on creating zero emissions in the rich countries which are the highest emitters of greenhouse gas by 2030. New worldwide goals around preserving the integrity of the biosphere can start the task of returning the world to the levels of biodiversity enjoyed for thousands of years prior to the industrial revolution. Biodiversity goals will also help to preserve threatened environmental habitats, such as forests, grasslands and tundra, and marine biomes, like coral reefs and mangrove swamps. As a value, altruism is part of a cooperative consciousness, which sees being with others as the condition of human existence. The challenge of utopia is to make altruism the norm. Achieving non-materialist ways of understanding the world is one of the great tasks of a people-planet utopia. The world of ideas is another realm of non-materialism, driving the work of writers, thinkers and scientists far more than material rewards.
