I live in a city, like millions of people in the world do.
My name is Alex, but everybody calls me Axe.
I'm 18 years old, but in relation to World's Age, I've just arrived here a few minutes
ago.
I remember when I was 10, and in October I would go to school with a scarf on my neck
and I would start my summer vacations in June.
That was just a few years ago.
Nowadays I go to college in October, but I'm using a t-shirt and I'm all sweaty, and when
June arrives and with it my supposed summer holidays, it's likely raining.
When I seriously think about that type of changes, it really makes me feel that huge
transformations are taking place on the planet I live in.
I remember when I saw Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
After that science class, I really started to think that I should radically change my
habits.
I really don't know if I do enough for the environment, I mean, I recycle and it sounds
so outdated when someone tells me to put all the garbage together in the same spot.
I also skate a lot, and I walk and take public transportation, but that's because I'm not
that rich to drive a car every day.
I can't guarantee that I wouldn't do it if I had the money.
I skate mostly because it's cool, helping the environment just an extra.
On the other hand, I smoke a lot, and even if I recycle all my secret packages, I probably
contribute really badly for the increase of the smog and that stuff.
You know, sometimes I see the news about the climate changes, and I forget about them in
a minute or so, because they happen so far away from me and don't affect me directly.
Nevertheless, when I think about the climate changes that I do feel, I really get worried
and start thinking that we are all going to die in a huge explosion or something.
We can't ignore there are some serious problems going on.
Just look at the news.
Floods in England and several European countries, droughts in California, maybe these type of
things were destined to happen on Earth like a teenager is supposed to have a lot of pimples
even though he takes care of his skin.
Maybe Earth is freaking out just because.
Still, as I said before, there are a lot of small actions we can do every day to help.
Then there are some other measures I can't take on my own.
I mean, I can't just simply ask my mom to put a toilet with a duo of flushing system
because she would tell me she has a lot more to worry about.
I wish there was some law that made me take all these unachievable ecological measures.
I know that I, we all, can do small things to help correct those huge problems.
But doesn't it require more powerful measures taken by the main world polluters?
Take recycling as an example.
A few years ago, people wouldn't stop talking about it.
What is it?
How does it help society?
Where and how can we recycle every day and make it a heavy-day habit?
I even remember a TV commercial with a monkey separating all the garbage, showing humans
that it was really easy to do.
That type of awareness really worked and played a huge role in introducing recycling at home.
And yeah, just like recycling, there are still a lot more things I could do for the environment
every single day.
Maybe I should start carrying a bag when I go shopping instead of asking for thousands
of plastic bags.
I should read the labels more carefully on all the packed products I buy.
But the truth is that I don't really know in which way I do or do not contribute for
the environment.
I can't have precise numbers, no one can.
Is that because of me that the Arctic's ice is melting so much?
It's kind of fun being here, thinking about what I can or can do.
Maybe I should make my friends think about this too and we could make a difference, who
knows, and become really famous by saving the Earth.
There is a certain unique and strange delight about walking down an empty street alone.
There is an off-focus light cast by the moon, and the street lights are part of the spotlight
apparatus on a bare stage set up for you to walk through.
You get a feeling of being listened to, so you talk aloud, softly, to see how it sounds.
