<i>&gt;There&#x27;s absolutely no indication that an industrialized people are happier than a people living as hunter-gatherers, for example. Just let Africa be.</i><p>I think it&#x27;s for Africans to decide how happy they are watching their children die from diarrhea so that zebras have more space. They will make their choice, but for the overwhelming majority of Africans the choice is not between being a hunter-gather society once again and destroying wildlife. That&#x27;s a fantasy.<p>There are much more important (and realistic) choices to make, such as how many children to have, how to beat corruption, how to skip some of the more polluting sorts of development models, how to finance modern infrastructure that enables a modern economy, not just one based purely and digging up commodities until boom turns to bust.<p>The way to avoid destruction of wildlife is to have to have good policies, good education, good infrastructure and modern industries like IT, telecoms, finance, pharma or entertainment.<p>In order to go back to hunter-gatherer societies, the first thing you&#x27;d have to do is kill 95% of the population. Doesn&#x27;t sound like a happy solution to me, but if you are so fond of it, please start doing it in your own country and just let Africa be.