Preparing Sub‐Saharan Africa for a Pioneering Role in Eco‐industrial Development

Sub-Saharan Africans cannot begin to help pioneer the future ecological economy today without first studying and working in Western universities, research institutes, and corporations any more than Asians could have helped in pioneering the future information economy three decades ago without first studying and working in such Western institutions. now faces is how to increase the living standards of humanity more broadly beyond the top 15% without increasing the peril of all of humanity, given the accelerating planetary destruction currently taking place. Third World nations that never experienced smokestack industrialization and were latecomers to digital industrialization can still succeed in achieving rising living standards in the next industrial tectonic shift, which will likely be eco-industrialization. In essence, ecoindustrialization offers a path toward obviating the moral conundrum mentioned above by allowing material living standards of the global South to rise without necessitating a fundamental change in the quality of life in the global North or producing more environmental destruction. The arguments of this column are timely since a new consciousness is evident in the minds and attitudes of Western corporate and venture capitalists: they are recognizing that the future