Students and community members hold signs to bring awareness to environmental issues during a People’s Climate March in Oxford, Miss., Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014. (DM Photo/Logan Kirkland)
Students for a Green Campus hosted a march Sunday beginning at the University of Mississippi Museum as a tie-in to the People’s Climate March held in New York to raise awareness on environmental issues.
The march started at the UM Museum and ended on the steps of the courthouse.
Ellen Olack, organizer of the march, said many members of the organization wanted to participate in the march in New York, but since many could not afford the trip they organized a march in Oxford to provide a local response.
“We are just bringing focus to Mississippi and putting Mississippi on the map for standing with the environment,” Olack said.
People of all ages participated in the march. Olack said she witnessed a 6-year-old made a sign saying “don’t kill the trees.”
“Even at a small age we can appreciate the environment around us,” she said.
Olack said the march is meant to bring attention to ways the community of Oxford can better the environment.
Olack said she is happy Oxford is starting a Complete Streets program for bicycles to cut down on the traffic in the city, but hopes the city is looking to improve.
“I think that they could expand that program, not all of the streets here have bike lanes,” Olack said. “Especially when there are so many students here.”
William Bedwell, chairperson for Students for a Green Campus, said there are 50 countries around the globe participating in the march, and having a localized march was an opportunity for those in the Oxford community to get involved with an international movement on climate change.
“This is a way that people can show their local elected officials as well as delegates to the U.N. that climate change is a serious issue that we expect action on,” Bedwell said.
Bedwell said he is impressed with the way the city and the university are trying to veer away from being automobile-dependent, but would like better strategies to obtain clean energy.
“We have a lot of our university investments in dirty energy,” Bedwell said. “I’d like to see a divestment of that to more clean energy.”
Dirty energy is energy that is not sustainable and puts large amounts of pollution into the atmosphere, like coal and oil, according to Bedwell.
Bedwell was impressed with the local participation of the march.
“It is partially all our faults and we all have to work together to fix it,” Bedwell said. “It’s an issue that affects all of us and that’s why so many different people came out.”
Jay Watson, academic advisor for Students for a Green Campus, said he was happy to see students and people in the community coming together to bring awareness to international and local issues.
Watson said he is happy Oxford recycles, but hopes the city is looking for ways to better their program.
“I’d like to see them extend their recycling out into Lafayette county, and I’d like to see us get more comprehensive with the things we recycle here,” he said.
Olack said the march is a perfect example that when people come together for a good cause their voices can be heard and can make a difference.
“Individuals matter,” Olack said. “We should protect the environment and the people in it.”
