BE A SCIENTIST - SAVE THE WORLD

We need a bold new ENERGY TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM similar to the APOLLO PROGRAM that will engage the minds of young Americans. A noble vision is needed to engage the imagination of the young to solve our collective power generation problem in a way that the SPACE PROGRAM engaged a previous generation. We need Boys and Girls to enter Physical Science and Engineering as they did after Sputnik and use their youthful energy and intelligence to design clean energy technology that will power the planet and help mankind avoid wars over energy resources. By 2050 the world needs to find a way to generate from 10 to 30 additional Terawatts of electricity (with the high end 30 Terawatt figure which is required to bring the rest of the planet up to the energy utilization level of the United States being much preferred).

What information, and what form of presentation, would engage the imagination of youth and provide them with a sense of MISSION to solve the planet’s energy scarcity problem (approximately 2 billion of the world’s people currently have no regular access to electricity)? Perhaps there is utility in examining influences that shaped the imagination of 1950's born children to persue the challenge of SPACE. As a youngster I found the following Disney special genuinely inspirational.


Disney/Von Braun Man in Space