Football Meets Activism: Ole Miss Students Celebrate 350 Day of Action
Oxford, MS- On October 24, citizens from 181 countries, took place in a global day of action to bring awareness to climate change, with hopes that their activism will influence the UN policy regarding carbon emissions. Photos from the 5200 registered events are posted on the website www.350.org and display the culturally relevant actions that took place from Cairo, Egypt to our own state. Ole Miss Students came together to engage Mississippians about this urgent topic; the Ole Miss v. Arkansas game coincided with the October 24th event, allowing a group of students to incorporate tailgating and activism.
Following a week of events planned by the Students for a Green Campus (SGC) and the Office of Sustainability, 1000 game day stickers that read “350.org” were handed out to those in the Grove for the Saturday’s SEC Game. While volunteers from SGC and student interns passed out the stickers, giving them an opportunity to hold conversations about reducing carbon emissions, they also encouraged tailgaters to come be a part of the photo for the international website. At 3:50 pm, following the Ole Miss victory, students, faculty, and Grovers captured a part of history; as they stood under the archway at the Walk of Champions wearing the 350.org stickers, students displayed posters that held the signatures of a few hundred members of the Ole Miss community who have pledged to do their own part in reducing carbon emissions.
Elizabeth Seratt, student intern for the Office of Sustainability organized the awareness events that took place on October 21-22 in front of the Student Union. “We had so many people turn out for the picture, which is so exciting. The posters in the photos show hundreds of others who couldn’t make it out that we engaged this week in front of the Union. It was a definite success,” says Seratt. A table displayed poster boards full of pledge signatures and tips on how to reduce carbon emissions on a personal level, while a Carbon Footprints display showed each country’s contribution to the level of CO2 currently in our atmosphere. The current count, measured in parts per million (PPM), is 387 PPM. For the ecosystems of our world to be healthy, and to avoid the disastrous effects of sea-level rise, we must bring that number to 350 PPM. Jim W. Morrison, Campus Sustainability Coordinator said, "As signatory to the American College and University President's Climate Commitment, the University of Mississippi has committed itself to lowering its carbon footprint. Events like 350 promote awareness among the students who must be engaged to achieve this goal."
Co-Presidents of the SGC, Caroline Williams and Megan Gargiulo, hail from the coast of Mississippi and have seen the effects climate change first hand, adding to their interest in planning this event. Powerful hurricanes like Katrina are predicted to occur with a higher frequency, as ocean temperatures drop and sea levels rise. Williams was thrilled with the way the event turned out on Saturday afternoon, “I think this turned out so well. We got to talk to so many people about 350 day and I’m so glad that the SGC was able to be a driving force behind Mississippi’s only event.”