Myself or my earth: a selfish perspective

It's 2 a.m now and the insomnia kicks in already. The tipsy will attack me first thing in the morning and will continue to a severe migraine if I don't have a proper breakfast or brunch. To hell with those, anyway. As long as I can enjoy this fast and free campus wi-fi in this dead night, I wouldn't mind. 

I went to a bookstore, a major one, this morning and I bought a book on radiology and a magazine on popular computer technology. So I paid for them, and packed the items in my backpack without any plastic bag. So what's the big deal? The big deal is what struck me right in the head only minutes afterward. 

I've been buying stuff without taking the plastic bag with one exception: when I bought my monthly food supply at the nearest hypermarket. I've been carrying my personal trash when I couldn't find any disposal bin. I been using the same mineral bottle in my fridge and in my backpack for months. I walked for a distance my friend wouldn't. 

I've been doing those stuff long before the DVD "An Inconvenient Truth" released by Mr. Al Gore. And I've been doing so silently, without talking to anyone about it, without telling anyone to do so 'cause I didn't know that I should. 

It was a coward act, of course, doing those things silently. I was afraid that during the earlier time when I built the habit' cause there were only me. I didn't see anyone doing so. I was affraid of being different. The final result was that I've been creating a habit for myself but the effect of my habit has been canceled by MILLIONS of other people doing contrary to it.

Now I see the DVD has been released worldwide and won the Oscar for best documentary. Mr. Al Gore himself won the Nobel Prize. The money spent on campaign by Mr. Al Gore and his team has reached millions, if not billions, of dollars. And I still see garbage piling up next to my door, at the corners of my campus, along the sidewalks of the street i walk everyday; none has changed in my surrounding. It's because I remained silent. 

I'm writing this as the end of my silence. My fear that I might be seen as a pompous smart-ass has vanished outside the bookstore I mentioned earlier. I will speak now with my mouth, my hands, my actions, and my writings. I will speak this:

-Watch the "An Incovenient Truth", if you haven't. It won an Oscar, for God's sake.
-Write the "things to do" at the end of the movie, and do some of it you are able to. Only some, not all.
-Convince your closest ones to watch it. 
-Don't take plastic bags unless it's necessary to pack your own garbage later.
-Walk farther.
-Buy bicycle, not more motorbikes, or even more cars, or even more SUV's. 
-Put some oxygen tank in your bicycle, or use the N95 respirator while going around if you live in smoky city like Mexico City, Bangkok, or Jakarta. 
-Take the public transportation.
-Don't buy SUV if you don't need the power or the torque from such engine.
-Convince your superiors to approve duplex printing for official documents, and a 50% scaled down printing for drafts. 
-Again, watch the end of the movie because they have more things there and it's arranged better than this nocturnal note.

So, start it from yourself. Be selfish. Our Earth is still salvable.