Fisher, Carroll, Pangborn, Howard

The discussion from the Pangborn, Fisher, Howard, Carroll section was very productive. The main emphasis of concern seemed to be the energy question and the concept of environmental issues and their importance in society. Overall, the student group believed that this question is a desire versus need question—right now, we are careless because we are comfortable. There is not a dire crisis at the present moment so there is not as much of an incentive to promote energy innovation, but we need to create this incentive. Just as the IT revolution came from private citizens rather than the governmental sector, so too should the ET revolution. Each individual will be responsible to do his or her own part to promote the common good. The overall student group view was that to stay level, we must promote activism in America today. As Thomas Friedman said, we must “get out of Facebook and into someone’s face” to promote innovation. The main responsibilities of our generation are to get the ball rolling and to set up a strong foundation of awareness for the environmental energy problem so that future generations can act to change these problems.