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    Julien Baker & TORRES ‘send a prayer’ to Oxford

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    Double Decker 28 rocks the Square

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    Opinion: How to avoid summertime sadness

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    Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

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    University cuts support for Oxford Pride

    University cuts support for Oxford Pride

    ASB expands legislative council, elects Wesley Templet president pro tempore

    ASB expands legislative council, elects Wesley Templet president pro tempore

    What goes into making Commencement happen for 5,500 graduates?

    What goes into making Commencement happen for 5,500 graduates?

    Stamps Impact Prize awarded to 15 students

    Stamps Impact Prize awarded to 15 students

    MPower sets on a new path amid low attendance

    MPower sets on a new path amid low attendance

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    House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

    House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

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    Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

    Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

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    Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

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    Ole Miss Softball battles through SEC Tournament

    Ole Miss softball falls to No. 1 Tennessee

    Ole Miss softball falls to No. 1 Tennessee

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    Seniors cement their campus legacy with a brick

    Seniors cement their campus legacy with a brick

    Student photographers capture picture-perfect graduation moments

    Student photographers capture picture-perfect graduation moments

    Julien Baker & TORRES ‘send a prayer’ to Oxford

    Julien Baker & TORRES ‘send a prayer’ to Oxford

    Double Decker 28 rocks the Square

    Double Decker 28 rocks the Square

    Grove trees cared for by the Department of Landscaping Services. Photo courtesy: Jillian Russell

    An ode to campus trees and those who care for them

    ‘Sinners’ falls flat on first watch

    ‘Sinners’ falls flat on first watch

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    Diary of a Black Girl: senior sign-off

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    Opinion: How to avoid summertime sadness

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    A farewell from Opinion Editor Justice Rose

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    Elise Jordan: Artificial Intelligence will completely transform world

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    danah boyd: Journalism connects people in a healthy social fabric

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Opinion: We are a species worth saving

Online DeskbyOnline Desk
September 29, 2019
Reading Time: 3 mins read

Nothing is quite as sobering as droves of elementary school-age children around the world skipping school to ask their governments for a viable chance to inherit a habitable Earth. From Sept. 20-27, over 7.6 million children, parents, grandparents, neighbors (re: humans) around the planet disrupted their daily lives to strike against government inaction regarding the ongoing climate crisis. 

Oxford was no exception. On Friday, nearly a hundred students, professors and children and parents gathered in the Circle, armed with colorful sidewalk chalk and witty cardboard signs in 90 degree September weather. 

“We have less than twelve years to protect our homes and our children from danger that will be irreversible,” said Heather Toney, local leader of Moms Clean Air Force. “This means more floods, more damage that we cannot change… I don’t know about you, but I actually like the Earth. I’m not ready to move to Mars.” 

Every week, I sit in a dystopian literature class and become more and more convinced that we are, in fact, living in an environmental dystopia, a world in which colonizing Mars is not off the table. Whenever I get a news notification to my phone, I feel a slight drop in my stomach. It is as if, unwittingly, I have subscribed to a flavor of the week club for the newest condemning piece of evidence. 

“North American bird population has dropped by 3 billion since 1970, study reveals,” states Fox News. 

“Air pollution particles found on foetal side of placentas – study,” says the Guardian. 

“As Amazon Smolders, Indonesia Fires Choke the Other Side of the World,” reads the New York Times. 

Sometimes, though, the notifications do not elicit a slight drop in my stomach – I have come to expect them. As weather events become more prevalent and extreme in nature, climate norms are continually redefined. If the intentional deforestation of the Amazon, our Earth’s lungs, did not move the needle toward global political action and consensus, then what will? You do not have to look as far as Brazil to be concerned, though. Instead, look to the flooding in the Mississippi Delta, threatening our most vulnerable neighbors, our crops and our economy. 

So what, then, do we do when today’s children ask for a chance to survive into their 20s and I ask for my fair share of 80 years? Will we deny culpability and say we didn’t realize we were like frogs in water once cool and inviting but now brought to a boil? 

We have cast our pearls before swine, forsaking the quality of life of current and future generations in exchange for the complacency and conveniences of today’s social, political and economic structures. If we believe that there is anything unique and beautiful about the human experience worth saving for future generations, then now is the time to act, in the hopes of mitigating the crisis human activity has already set in motion. 

We must be honest with ourselves: forgoing plastic straws and believing in human ingenuity are gratifying, but they will not be enough. 

Action will require sacrifice like never before seen: the reframing of an unending global economic growth model, the uprooting of current agricultural and industrial practices and the rejection of modern conveniences. With a crisis so immense, it is daunting to know where to begin. Yet, individual actions must compound in collective social and political will, holding ourselves and our government accountable on behalf of our species. 

Hundreds and hundreds of years from now, Earth will still exist, regardless of human action or inaction. Will we? 

Ainsley Ash is a junior public policy leadership major from Meridian, Mississippi.

In Case You Missed It

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

3 weeks ago
Ole Miss Softball takes series against Missouri

Ole Miss Softball advances to World Series for first time in program history

4 weeks ago
Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

1 month ago
Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

1 month ago
Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

1 month ago
Ole Miss Softball dominates Rocket City Softball Showcase

Ole Miss Softball battles through SEC Tournament

1 month ago

Opinion: We are a species worth saving

Online DeskbyOnline Desk
September 29, 2019
Reading Time: 3 mins read

Nothing is quite as sobering as droves of elementary school-age children around the world skipping school to ask their governments for a viable chance to inherit a habitable Earth. From Sept. 20-27, over 7.6 million children, parents, grandparents, neighbors (re: humans) around the planet disrupted their daily lives to strike against government inaction regarding the ongoing climate crisis. 

Oxford was no exception. On Friday, nearly a hundred students, professors and children and parents gathered in the Circle, armed with colorful sidewalk chalk and witty cardboard signs in 90 degree September weather. 

“We have less than twelve years to protect our homes and our children from danger that will be irreversible,” said Heather Toney, local leader of Moms Clean Air Force. “This means more floods, more damage that we cannot change… I don’t know about you, but I actually like the Earth. I’m not ready to move to Mars.” 

Every week, I sit in a dystopian literature class and become more and more convinced that we are, in fact, living in an environmental dystopia, a world in which colonizing Mars is not off the table. Whenever I get a news notification to my phone, I feel a slight drop in my stomach. It is as if, unwittingly, I have subscribed to a flavor of the week club for the newest condemning piece of evidence. 

“North American bird population has dropped by 3 billion since 1970, study reveals,” states Fox News. 

“Air pollution particles found on foetal side of placentas – study,” says the Guardian. 

“As Amazon Smolders, Indonesia Fires Choke the Other Side of the World,” reads the New York Times. 

Sometimes, though, the notifications do not elicit a slight drop in my stomach – I have come to expect them. As weather events become more prevalent and extreme in nature, climate norms are continually redefined. If the intentional deforestation of the Amazon, our Earth’s lungs, did not move the needle toward global political action and consensus, then what will? You do not have to look as far as Brazil to be concerned, though. Instead, look to the flooding in the Mississippi Delta, threatening our most vulnerable neighbors, our crops and our economy. 

So what, then, do we do when today’s children ask for a chance to survive into their 20s and I ask for my fair share of 80 years? Will we deny culpability and say we didn’t realize we were like frogs in water once cool and inviting but now brought to a boil? 

We have cast our pearls before swine, forsaking the quality of life of current and future generations in exchange for the complacency and conveniences of today’s social, political and economic structures. If we believe that there is anything unique and beautiful about the human experience worth saving for future generations, then now is the time to act, in the hopes of mitigating the crisis human activity has already set in motion. 

We must be honest with ourselves: forgoing plastic straws and believing in human ingenuity are gratifying, but they will not be enough. 

Action will require sacrifice like never before seen: the reframing of an unending global economic growth model, the uprooting of current agricultural and industrial practices and the rejection of modern conveniences. With a crisis so immense, it is daunting to know where to begin. Yet, individual actions must compound in collective social and political will, holding ourselves and our government accountable on behalf of our species. 

Hundreds and hundreds of years from now, Earth will still exist, regardless of human action or inaction. Will we? 

Ainsley Ash is a junior public policy leadership major from Meridian, Mississippi.

In Case You Missed It

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

House v. NCAA settlements gets approved, universities can now directly pay athletes

3 weeks ago
Ole Miss Softball takes series against Missouri

Ole Miss Softball advances to World Series for first time in program history

4 weeks ago
Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

Ole Miss Baseball wins big at home against UT Martin

1 month ago
Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

Is the university getting closer to a cap on admissions?

1 month ago
Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

Ole Miss Baseball falters on the road against in-state rival

1 month ago
Ole Miss Softball dominates Rocket City Softball Showcase

Ole Miss Softball battles through SEC Tournament

1 month ago

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