This lecture was very interesting to listen to for me personally because it involves subjects that I am passionate about. By incorporating literature and using famous novels as reference to discuss the dangers of climate change in our contemporary age, Dr. Hensley was able to captivate me in this lecture and make me even more conscious of my carbon footprint. I have always cared about the environment and one of my first jobs was working as a courtesy boat inspector in Belgrade, Maine. I used to make sure invasive species of plants such as milfoil were not on any of the boats entering the lake or leaving the lake and I was to remove and bag all of these invasive plant species. As this indicates I am passionate about taking care of our planet and so many of the statistics that were presented in this lecture were extremely alarming. Everyone has heard all of the terrible things about climate change before, but to hear things like over 50% of the species of animals on this planet might be extinct within our lifetime it is terrifying.
I think by combining this was classical and historic literature and comparing the views culturally 200 years ago to the views people hold now, it was really powerful to think about both how far we have come since then and how little we really have changed. On one hand, we have all of this crazy technology and the super computers of even a few decades ago can now fit into all of our pockets. On the other hand we are still experiencing the same issues as someone like Alice, and must still manage and battle the idea that we may never be able to return to the world we know and love.
I thought the most interesting part of this lecture was the discussion between Dr. Hensley and a student about the power of literature in combating issues like this. Although I personally may not argue that Alice was making a substantial argument about climate change in the world, I think that literature is definitely one of the most powerful tools we have in our modern age. As more and more people buy into the idea of fake news, less people believe major news outlets and more people will go back to believing written word and hard facts. It if difficult for most people to argue with strong statistics and evidence (although some still manage to do so) because they are so often backed up with scientific evidence. When this is written down and communicated effectively to the youth of this country and the world in primary schools, we will be properly preparing the future generations of this world to take care of it. I thought also mentioning the ways books create discussion, collaboration and just facilitate further brainstorming on how to combat this huge issue was really insightful. Overall I thought this presentation was another great addition to this lecture series and kept me entertained and learning throughout.