Brian Rosborough, founder and chairman of Earthwatch, a nonprofit organization that sponsors scientific field research projects, urged students last night to examine the real purpose of education and to be prepared for entrepreneurial opportunities that will arise in the future as the world changes.
He spoke about "Getting from here to there" to a to-capacity crowd in Room 3 of the Rockefeller Center.
"The difference between you and me is that you have time to engage in service or education," he said.
"I think that you will conclude by the end of my presentation that you have a front row seat on the 30 years ahead of us," he said.
Rosborough said new situations emerging in the world lead to a need for new ideas.Social disorganization around the world today creates a need for extensive management as these problems arise, he said.
"The complexities of life and the management of this complexity is one of the things that is the hallmark of your generation," Rosborough said.
"Life is about change," Rosborough continued. "Predicting change has become increasingly important."
The three drivers of change are population, energy, and the climate, he said.
From the start of the Industrial Revolution, population and technology have increased at a significant rate, Rosborough said. "This change speeds up all processes of living and resource use," he said.
For example, in the last 100 years, population around the world has advanced five fold while energy use has increased 20 fold.Human intervention and ingenuity will lead to more efficient resource use, he said.
Discussion of the environment has passed through three phases, Rosborough said.
First, increasing concern for the environment brought the realization that it needed help. This led to changes in decision and policy making. Now, organizations are working actively to clean up the environment, he said.
"There is more pressure on the production side to recycle and reuse material," he said. "Corporations and governments have to weigh the cost of action and inaction."
Rosborough said that students must now learn to cope with these changes, as they will be living in a different world when they are in the middle of their professional careers.
Rosborough said he encourages students to learn to work in teams.
The world has developed an infrastructure of specialization, he said. But a combination of people with all skills and resources is necessary to cope with these changes.
Interdisciplinary courses attempt to incorporate this combination on the education level, Rosborough said.
"One form of capital is your ingenuity and intelligence," Rosborough said.
"Like fighter pilots, you can have no apparent fear of failure," he said.
Victor Henningsen, a member of the audience who is visiting scholar in education, who was at the speech, said after the speech that Rosborough was correct in pointing out that in the year 2020, when current college students will be in the middle of their careers, tremendous opportunities for growth and development will exist.
"Experience is a necessary complement to formal education," he told The Dartmouth. "College students need to take time off to assess why they are getting this education and how it relates to the world."
Dave Kramer '96, a teaching assistant for the class, noted Rosborough's global emphasis.
"His speech showed us that we need to be more aware of the global perspective and how it relates to education," Kramer said.
Rosborough also reasserted the fact that there is a need for innovative approaches in education to solve bigger problems in the world today, Kramer said.
