Final Course Reflection

Andy Round

I was aware of climate change prior to English 540 with Dr. Hamner, but it did not feel like I really needed to think about it. I thought it had not truly affected me yet and perhaps even that it really would not be a problem in this century. I now know that attitude to be naive and problematic. In my mind, the root of this manner of thinking grows from the perceived intangibility of climate change. It is incumbent upon me now to attend to this problem with a special focus on how the Quad Cities community has already experienced the deleterious effects of humanity’s behavior--unprecedented flooding, dramatic temperature swings in all four seasons, too much or too little precipitation, and increasingly damaging storms.

I used to think this problem would not affect me in my lifetime or even my son in his lifetime, but now I know we have already been affected and will continue to be affected in increasingly dramatic ways if we (especially our elected leaders) do not take deliberate action now. I want to help people who were in the position I was prior to this class to see that climate is not something that will just convalesce and continue on its own in the background of our lives; being good stewards of the planet means proactively taking care of our climate, and it means untangling and discarding the damaging behaviors woven into our way of life.