I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Hensley’s talk. One of the aspects of the talk that I found particularly interesting was his section on the frequency of storms as reported by news outlets. He showed article headlines that claimed that the Hurricane Harvey was a storm that would occur only once in 100 years, 500 years, or even, as some headlines stated, 1000 years. However, it is clear that storms as strong or stronger than Harvey are happening even more frequently, some within a few years of each other or even in the same year.
Why does this matter? It shows, through literature, that we have to change the way we think from time to time. In the past, Hurricane Harvey was truly a once in however many centuries storm. Now, this is no longer our reality. Storms like this, because of climate change, have unfortunately become a part of our life as creatures of the Earth. We must not only become accustomed to enduring them on a more regular basis, but we must regard them in a way in which we have never regarded them before.
Dr. Hensley refers to this change in thinking as a “regime change.” In other words, our minds have become so use to something being presented to us in a certain way for such a long period of time, that we can only present it literarily in that way. Now that the nature of this thing is changing, it is our job to convey to other that this is the new reality, and we must act accordingly in dealing with such an issue.
As I edit this entry, looking back on my experience in this class, it is truly remarkable how much we can learn about today by looking at yesterday. From topics pertaining to sexuality, to underwater ecosystems, and even understanding the creation of our galaxy, the past is sometimes one of the greatest tools we have in understanding almost anything. However, I think the most pressing issue that we discussed in this course is exactly what Dr. Hensley talked about in his speech, climate change. While there is so much still left to learn, we won’t be able to learn those things if we don’t change our thinking about climate change. The crux of Dr. Hensley’s talk was that what we are experiencing today in regards to climate change is unprecedented. Yes, the climate is and always has been a constantly changing and evolving entity, but it is time to throw out what we know about our climate from the past and start looking to the future. We can no longer rely on our prior perception of climate phenomenons like “hundred year” and “five hundred year” storms. it is time for us to understand that there really is no prior literature on what we are experiencing, and must channel all of our energy in the study of our climate and environments into fixing what we’ve broken. We may not return our environment to its past state, but at the least we can give our species and others more time on this planet.