The Economic Might of Earth’s Evolution: The Epic Promise of Knowledge

The article presents original economic and business models that, in their interplay, have the capacity to shepherd the sustainability and conservation legacy of the emerging global knowledge economy. These models are framed by an assertion that our planet holds a vast reserve that could define the 21st century as profoundly as oil has shaped the 20th century. They are premised on a comparison: Unlike oil or mineral ores whose global volume is just a sum of their deposits across the world, the 21st-century reserve—the yet-to-be-tapped scientific knowledge embedded in biologically opulent landscapes and seascapes—grows in volume and worth in the context of evolutionary, ecological, and other relationships that transcend regions and political borders. They are grounded in legacy-investment opportunities whose competitiveness and prestige grow along with the geographical footprint of the research they underwrite. While various stages of these models’ conceptualization and validation have been published in scholarly journals and enriched with endorsements by several members and officers of the United States National Academy of Sciences and by heads of state and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) leaders, this article is the first comprehensive presentation of both. It pioneers their integration into a catalyst of a new economic geography. It charts a paradigm of “noble wealth,†not intended to replace oil wealth but to outperform it in endurance and lasting benefit to humanity.