July 16, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Our daughter and I are back from Copenhagen! We were there as tourists but mostly to reconnect with families and people in another realm of our life that is outside of strictly climate work. Because it wasn’t just a vacation but part retreat/conference, I didn’t know quite what to expect during this week. It was a pivotal week though since it was marked on my paper calendar for over a year VACATION/OFF. It really marks the end also of this marathon time between when our youngest was accepted to Harvard to now in the middle of the planned last summer as a high schooler. I honestly did not know what to expect and didn’t burden Copenhagen with my expectations, and it ended up being SPECTACULAR!

I realize now that I’m finally back up at my regular blogging time due to the super weird time change! It’s 332am and I used to blog at this time back when I first started blogging thousands of blogposts ago! But I’m up at 333am now because in Copenhagen it is – 1230am! The time change is CRAZY! My body definitely felt in while in Copenhagen during the retreat/conference.

My iPhone camera rolls is filled with pictures and memories. We were there with my son and little brother and one of my little brother’s close friends from Toronto. The three young men are still in Europe, and started their planned trek through the French and Swiss Alps.

This is a picture of our last night at a fancy dinner where my son found on a Reddit thread the best place to have Smørrebrød, which is the Danish open faced sandwich. I had never heard of Smørrebrød, but it was just one of those things we had to have in Denmark together – so we had it and it was really good I guess for what Smørrebrød is supposed to be. Here is the Michelin star rated Smørrebrød

I had not part in choosing the restaurant but the oldest wanted to go there, and it was our last night together in Copenhagen. We kept on telling ourselves “When are we ever going to be in Copenhagen together again?” the last evening there. So we had the sandwich and other food, and spent $350 on dinner which is more than I would usually spend. But it was worth it was the memories and the quiet, and the elegant ambience to end our trip.

We had so many experiences and connections together. Our family weaved in and out of other people’s narratives. And through this time I was replaying so much of my life, as I was observing and participating in this conference/retreat and family vacation.

But when people ask me what I will remember most about Copenhagen, I won’t be able to tell them all those intricate details and observations that make no sense to someone outside of our actual family. What I will tell folks, is that I will always remember the National Aquarium of Denmark – standing at the intersection of the Baltic and North Sea. I will remember the HUGE ALASKAN OTTERS that were the size of school children. I will remember the fish that I saw that had TEETH! Their teeth were HUGE, and as a pediatrician who cares about pediatric dental health – I giggled and I thought to myself “I wonder if anyone has ever tried to brush their teeth?” LOL.

And here I am showing my teeth! I’m wearing my work zippie which is actually the best zippie for traveling. I didn’t buy anything new for the trip and wore just the clothes that I had, and I think the pictures turned out great! It’s amazing how when one is just happy, the pictures turn out great. I loved how sustainable everything was in Copenhagen – although the Danish did pillage and colonize a bunch of cultures too.

And here I am wearing a visor from their prep school that I bought over a decade ago, and it works as the best travel cap! I’m only going to try to travel when I need to and combine this advocacy work with one vacation, but I’ll wear this cap! The water was so clean and it was sad because I kept on thinking about how dirty and polluted our water is because of the Tijuana Sewage Crisis.

And here is the less polluted water in the Baltic/North Sea, and wind turbines in the background. I think we were in the only place in the world without a heat wave, which is kind of sad.

July 5, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It’s 7:02am and I’m going to head out to the beach soon and help with the “Morning After Mess” Beach Clean-up after the 4th of July. There were hundreds of thousands of people enjoying the beach, and even the most conscientious beach-goer leaves a bit of trash behind. So there will be lots of people cleaning up the plastic debris before it goes into the ocean. There will be plenty of people on the beach, so I might just clean around the streets and gutters before it goes into the ocean.

I’ve been reflecting lately on what San Diego Pediatricians/Physicians for Clean Air is, and what it is – is really just us. It’s a list-serve of over a 100 folks that are truly connected and in step, trying to help with environmental health. It’s largely our HMO pediatric department, and the medical students and premedical students and residents that we’ve collected on the way. It’s also our own children and our family, that we bring along to participate in events.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who is part of this “loose coalition” which is more real and coordinated than official non-profits that have grants and full time staff. We just have ourselves and a $20 website, and honestly that is enough because we are actually doctors who practice and who are responsible for our community and patients.

Gosh, we’ve done a lot. And it 100% has been US. Yes I blog and I go on the news and I coordinate. But I’m mostly talking to everyone and texting folks about issues, and connecting all of us – and then trying to help us figure out together what to do. I don’t do this in a vacuum. It’s all of us.

And I found this picture on my old laptop, and it makes me so incredibly grateful for our pediatric community. We have worked to save the birds from the Sea World fireworks (at least reduced some of the fireworks and the pollution). We have mentored a lot of medical students and premedical students in advocacy, and they are going to continue to do this. We’ve picked up trash together, and hung out on the wetlands together. We helped Rewild Mission Bay, which was HUGE! And we put together now 4 years of H3SD , San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit! It started off with pediatricians, and we’ve inspired the internist and emergency room doctors and so many others to help with issues like the Tijuana Sewage Crisis and Nitrogen Fertilizer Pollution. And in all this work, it was pediatricians raising the alarm because environmental pollution disproportionately affects children.

Just going out to the beach to clean up, and feeling grateful to all of you.

July 3, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

The blog traffic has definitely shot up since the KPBS interview with Tammy Murga. (Hi Tammy!). I’m sure she is busy doing other stories about environmental health. That’s the thing about the current climate crisis and environmental pollution, it’s endless and the super interesting honestly so there are so many stories, so many characters, and so many opportunities to make a difference.

I gave a talk two days ago at work, and honestly it was a very healing talk. I had not been invited to speak at our departmental meeting since leaving and it was nice to talk to my fellow pediatricians. I try to keep as low as a profile as I can these days, since so much of my advocacy is outside of work. It’s complicated work , politics, scheduling, interpersonal dynamics. But we have to all work together to keep the wheels of the HMO going. But the talk was on air pollution and health, and I had taken a good amount of time to prepare for the talk. Two students had the opportunity to deliver their talks and it went well. Several of my fellow pediatricians gave me feedback which was positive, and I’ve since watched my talk several times and it landed well.

There has been some super interesting developments on the H3SD project! We are putting together our fourth annual H3SD San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit. Things are going really well. I feel more in control this year, since I’m more involved with the planning. Our speaker coordinator Wooch Kim is going to send out the speaker scheduling emails soon. I’ve been working with our HMO CME team. Proud of the line up of sessions and we are definitely thinking together and generating new ideas and projects and collaborations together.

The cool thing, is that I helped connect the American College of Physicians Region 3 with the San Diego Foundation, and they are putting on the first ever binational border health conference end of August! It is the internal medicine group and they are super powerful and influential, and they are our friends! ACP actually has been involved with H3SD since it’s inception, and gives us a small grant and their membership attends too. But they are putting on a first of it’s kind conference where the first day is at UC San Diego and the second day is at a medical school in Tijuana. I’ve been invited! I’m super excited to see what my internal medicine colleagues are up to! They are going to have some sessions on environmental health!

I think we were able to bridge a lot of institutional divides and professional society divides because this work for many of us in volunteer. Being an environmental health hobbyist is a very effective thing! My friend Dr. Dear Friend said she didn’t think I should call myself a yapologists, but I like that term! I’m a clean air yapologists! I yap for free. I also blog for free! I figure it’s free entertainment for myself and for the world! My goal is just to inspire folks to do their part, or at least know there is a movement out there of doctors and medical student and premedical students in San Diego trying to help with the climate crisis.

It’s the long holiday weekend so I hope everyone has a great and sustainable time! I’ll be anxiously awaiting to see what happens with the Sea World lightshow (or are they doing fireworks this year?). I’m anxious to see how the birds in Mission Bay do. We had a bird massacre two years ago, when hundreds of birds died on West Ski Island. Here is some of the coverage 2 years ago https://voiceofsandiego.org/2024/07/19/bird-nerds-take-war-against-mission-bay-fireworks-to-councilmembers/

It was cool to be involved in this fight for cleaner air and helping the birds in Mission Bay. We need more birds and more wildlife. We are all interconnected! A bunch of pediatricians and county health folks are going to drop an article on this concept soon called “One Health.” It’s an entire real public health concept! So cool! I love being in this place and learning about the world and human health and environmental health. It’s so fun to be a climate and health hobbyist!

July 1, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

The house is quiet this morning. It’s 5:15am and its Wednesday. I have about 2 hours to finalize a presentation for our pediatrician HMO group today. I finished it, but it needs to be personalized and pizazzed up! My sister-in-law, one of three, just left on a flight to attend to her family and mothering. It’s been a busy and family-filled 2 months since our youngest was admitted to Harvard and finished with graduation and all the celebratory things our family went through to celebrate. It was honestly exhausting. It was much needed, but for me it completely tapped out my social battery. It was all too much. Too much emotion. Too many family dynamics. Too much rebalancing and reshuffling. There were too many emotions and relationship dynamics. At some points, I really just wanted to go to work where I don’t have to feel and I don’t have to be intertwined with two very close and two very intense family groups. But OMG it’s finally over. I’m proud of our youngest, but she’s off to just go to college and live her life. She has goals and ambitions, and she’ll be at the right place to try to achieve them.

As for me! I want to tell you about our H3SD stickers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aren’t they fantastic???!!!! My climate collaborator Dr. Luis Castellanos has three very talented sons, and their oldest designed the stickers!!!! It was part of his community service hours for school and I got to sign off on his hours. We are so grateful for his design. Then I saw on Instagram that you can order stickers so I ordered stickers and used a coupon! I tried to get the best price but honestly it was a really good price! $100 for 200 stickers. I may order more. I have to spend down about $800 from our H3SD 2025 budget, so I need to order some AAP-CA3 Extreme Heat and Youth Sports Flyers and buy some more laynards and name cards for the summit. All the labor is volunteer, so that is why we are so cost-effective in our budget!

H3SD has been such a great training ground for our entire region. It’s so fun! Pretty much we make it fun and FREE and community oriented. Only people who want to come, show up. And we try to save the earth together and help our community become more resilient to global heating. This year has been so interesting meeting with our planning committee, and thinking together in terms of sessions. That we all fundamentally like each other and respect each other, and bring what we can to this great collaboration – makes it all flow. I spent so much time yesterday working with our Speaker Coordinator Wooch Kim in organizing the speaker schedules, and updating the spreadsheet that is there for everyone. We applied for HMO CME credit as well, and are finishing up that process.

But the stickers are just an example of the opportunities H3SD provides to our community. Speakers from all over San Diego from different academic institutions converge on this Saturday in mid-August. We always do it right before UC Berkeley starts since our oldest is now a senior at UC Berkeley. There are the four conference planning leads, there are the speaker coordinators, there are the tech team, and there are the UCSD AIP students who help with things. There are the opportunities for the medical students, to be part of the EJ Youth panel and moderating the sessions. There are the poster sessions where you can do a test drive of any research or advocacy posters one might have worked on. We have all the talks and just getting to be at the beautiful space at UC San Diego School of Medicine – I think means a lot to everyone.

So anyway, just wanted to show everyone the beautiful stickers that Luis and Lizette’s son designed! I ordered them! And then helped find funding from the San Diego Foundation to put the entire thing on.

The only way to get a sticker is to come to the H3SD summit! So come help us address global heating and human health in San Diego on August 15! https://sdpediatriciansforcleanair.com/h3sd-san-diego-heat-and-human-health-summit-resources

Oh, we have to udpate the flyer on the website and also the link to the youtube channel. I’ll let our webmaster know! Shogo is amazing!

June 24, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I wasn’t sure what the meeting was about, but I had received this email about a Scientific Advisory Board Meeting at the Indian Health Council at the Rincon Reservation. I assume it was from Dr. Dan Calac who is also a Harvard Medical School alumni and head of the the IHC and good climate friend. I had told my friend Dr. Luis Castellanos about the invitation and he had received the invitation as well, but he had clinical and teaching duties. I had clinic just in the morning and a dental cleaning. So I let our oldest who is home for summer break anyway, know that this was happening and asked him if he could come with me. He’s always in for any climate side-questing with me, and has been with me during the most interesting climate adventures – so we planned on going together.

Yesterday was an incredibly LONG day. Somehow it all worked out, and indeed just this morning I finished all my notes from yesterday! Yeah! But yesterday, somehow I was able to finish all my patient care and then went to the dentists. Had interesting conversations with my dentists an my dental hygienists. I also had NO CAVITIES and they said things looked good and were able to space my cleanings for 6 months! I’m really working on my dental health, so I was nervous and relieved and happy. And then at 230 after finishing with my dentists, headed back up from the South Bay to meet my son at home before heading to the meeting.

I had no idea where the Rincon Reservation was. I had no idea what the meeting entailed. All I knew is that I received an interesting invitation, and one of my good climate friends who is a senior physician asked me to come – so I went. I’m a fairly obedient physician, and he’s a a more senior physician than I am. I’m not sure if Dr. Calac remembers inviting me? But I’m so glad we went!

It was such an interesting adventure getting there and getting back. The scenery was a part of a region I had never quite experienced before. Indeed, it’s a different culture and a different nation. We listened actively to the presentations and were inspired by the talks. It was such an interesting mix of people in the room, researchers from UC Berkeley and San Diego. Tribal Board members and elders. The mix of talks reminded me that health inequities are some of the biggest issues for indigenous health systems. I heard terms I had never heard before “culture is healing, ” discussions on “sacred tobacco” and the commercialization of “sacred tobacco” that is not endorsed by the Navaho nation. We got some very interesting swag and a children’s book , and a lot of cool stickers!

Dinner was really delicious. I was able to chat with Dr. Calac afterwards and I told him about the data center work and we discussed the Tijuana Sewage Crisis as well. I updated him on the San Ysidro Health Center Tijuana Sewage studies, and I remet someone I had met during HPV work. It’s so interesting the world and the folks that move through it, and who we are connected with.

I was so honored to be invited and so grateful that the coordinator said it was okay to bring our oldest son. It was a very interesting research conference and it was FREE and delicious dinner included. I just wanted to remember yesterday and grateful I had an interesting climate side-quest with our oldest, and got to see a part of the world that I would never have seen – if not for my climate friends. Thank you Dr. Dan Calac for the wonderful invitation and inspiring new thoughts and giving us new experiences yesterday.

June 23, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I’m feeling lonely right now. It doesn’t make much sense since there are a lot of people around me. My mother-in-law is sitting in the kitchen sipping coffee, and just commented that I’m up early this morning. I’m blogging in the kitchen again and I’m up on time these days, and not binge watching as much Netflix. Indeed I’m not watching much Netflix at all. The house is full but just one person is missing.

Our daughter is on a semi-tropical vacation with her best friend and their family, and I missed her. She called yesterday and we chatted for a long time. She sent some pictures and it was foreshadowing for what the autumn will spring – when she goes off to college.

And one of my long time climate and health colleagues is moving back to her home state of Ohio. She has two young boys now and their entire family is in Ohio (both sides) so for their children and their families, it makes sense to be together. She was one of the very first people who joined me in climate and health advocacy. We’ve been through a lot together. She’s been through a lot. And now she’s leaving San Diego and moving back home where it feels very right for her to be. Almost a decade I’ve know her. She’s done tremendous clinical and climate work. It seems very right this move of hers, but it makes me feel lonely.

June 22, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

I’m having a lot of fun this morning watching an old YouTube video of our pediatric offices (Bonita and Otay Mesa) dancing during an event almost 13 years ago. It was mostly staff and nursing that had organized and coordinated the dance practices and events, but I remember showing up as one of three physicians and it was so much fun. We had several practices and I think I made most of them, and we were all part of the short well edited video for our HMO. Even well over a decade later, watching it brings a smile to my face and brings up memories or small moments that were so new and exciting and filled with connection and community.

Being a participant is very POWERFUL.

Here is a fuzzy image of me in the background. It was so fun and I had shorter hair with a lot less greys! If I had known perimenopause was going to be like this, I would have enjoyed myself even more back then! But honestly to all the friends that were part of the dance video, thank you for including me! It was the nurses that really encouraged us physicians to show up and to participate. It was so fun being part of the group. Let’s MOVE YOUR BODY and also SAVE THE EARTH!

Here is a link to the video if you want to watch https://youtu.be/NgQbGSs2BCY?si=Zu9sJRaa6k1efJyl

I’m going to move my body by going jogging this morning! I’m blogging back downstairs and it’s nice and quiet. I may return to blogging in the kitchen in the early mornings again.

June 20, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

This Data Center/AI thing is really out of control! One of my climate friends told me that there is a data center proposed in rural Montana, and from a town of 150 – 100 people showed up at a town meeting regarding this. My pediatrician climate friend told me that they used our handout! Our handout is actually based on another friend’s handout, which we reviewed and agreed upon and I just put our logo on it (San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air). It’s a really powerful handout, and we are proud to help ask questions on behalf of children and environmental health.

California is really diverse, and this is completely driven by big tech. And I think it makes sense it had to be so cal pediatricians leading the way. I know my town and my town San Diego is a really loving area. we are not left nor right. We are center. And the center can care about community and the earth and climate. Not everything comes out of the bay area. I’m a very San Diego-centric pediatricians so I’m really proud of us!

Anyway, just was thinking about how powerful a flyer is and wanted to share this flyer again!

June 15, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

We just finished hosting our daughter’s graduation party at our house. It went fabulously and we were exhausted by happy. The house was soooooooooooo clean in the preparation.

I took some well deserved space to be fully present as a mom during the last few weeks. Our youngest graduated high school and there were a lot of celebrations. But during that entire time, I was scrolling through posts and reading news articles and seeing the very real community uprising and our climate communities collective horror at the emergence of data centers. Our own HMO along with every other health system and indeed every sector is pushing AI as the answer to everything. I can honestly say other than a few times accidentally reading the AI generated summary for a google search (I’m trying to change to Ecosia again), I do not use AI. And the reason why, is that I have natural intelligence and I also understand in the core of my irreverent eco-avatar heart that the rise in AI and Data Centers is incompatible with life on earth. It’s simply too energy and water intensive. Nothing is free, and AI is not free. It exploits our very real natural resources and there is simply not enough for biological life already to share with AI.

So now that our daughter has graduated and we have just one more small celebratory thing to plan, I’m back at my volunteer climate work in earnest.

This is SUPER IMPORTANT. I even created an email folder called “AI BAD.” When it gets a separate folder on my email account than you know it’s an important issue. A group of connected pediatricians are already working together on an email group and drafting a national resolution on AI and data center proliferation without the required environmental reviews. We have one of the main breakout sessions at H3SD San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit going to address AI and Data Centers and Extreme Heat in the Imperial Valley (which is the area that is part of our bioregion where they are doing a land grab for data centers). Then we need to write an article on AI and extreme heat for the San Diego Physicians Magazine. After that is done, the team can this just continue giving talks virtually and in person wherever we are invited and then we will have done a huge part in the fight against the environmental devastation that is threatened by AI and data centers.

I have to finish our newsletter for June as well. I have a lot to do, but it’s a good to do list. The craziness of celebrating graduation was fun but exhausting so I’m glad to be in this part of life. The achy feeling of knowing our youngest is leaving soon is real. But climate work slows time down for me. I just go project by project, and get to work on things I think are actually important. No one tells me to do anything, and I’m a free agent in this space. Freedom is really important. Freedom of thought. Freedom of creativity. Why anyone would allow someone else to control your thoughts and your freedoms, and take away the creative process – makes no sense to me.

I’ve noticed everyone that gravitates toward AI are actually the folks I wouldn’t naturally like. They are the ones looking for shortcuts and no the thoughtful ones. They are the ones that look for the easy way out. Guess what????!!! There is no easy way out of any problem. There is nothing that is accomplished without hard work. But this will give some very deserving students an opportunity to be involved in some ground breaking advocacy. Whoever responds to my text messages first will get the project!

Thanks for hearing me ramble on about data centers and AI. It is good to know it’s not just me. There are more and more people concerned, and as pediatricians it’s our duty to speak on behalf of the children in these rural areas who will bear the brunt of the burden. So my house was super clean before we dove into the AI advocacy work!

June 7, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

Given the Harvard entering class is about 1600 unique individuals, the idea that anyone knows the formula of how to get into Harvard – is really ridiculous. Some other parents have asked Mr. Plastic Picker, who is the Chief of the Radioactive Doctors Department, and he just shrugs his shoulders. It was an exhausting process senior year for all involved, just applying to college. It just happened that the top college our youngest was admitted to was Harvard, and it has that aura. But for all of us who are alumni and Harvard trained, we all know it’s just a place. It’s pretty similar to other places like Yale, Brown, Stanford, Columbia, Georgetown, Cornell, Berkeley, Clairemont McKenna Colleges, USC, UCLA, and on and on and on.

I’m glad she’s in and we’ve reveled as a family and community, but then moving past it. I’m relieved. Our daughter has made contact with the Harvard Ceramics program and other key people she will need to know while there. She has a vague idea of what she wants to study and professional goals. And we have our plane tickets and hotel reservations, and a move-in date. We are back to the regular world of having to do things together as a family, and are still celebrating – but not nonstop. It was very wonderful but a bit too much for my nervous system! Yesterday Mr. Plastic Picker and I went for a long walk. We ate food at home which has plenty of protein, and some fruit/vegetables. We are eating all the many many leftovers in our house, and re-centering ourselves. We had a last gathering of our girl scout troop yesterday which was very meaningful. And ended that chapter of our lives. It was twelve years together. That could be an entire book in itself! I am so grateful I was their girl scout leader, and got to have that experience with my daughter and her friends and the other moms. We had so many different experiences together!

How do you get into Harvard? Actually I got into Harvard too! But I’d rather ask the questions – how do I deep clean my bathroom? How do I fill the sink-hole in my backyard? How do I navigate menopause? How many supplements does any sane person take? Which hair-dye should I use? How do I get Mr. Plastic Picker to exercise more and stress less? Those are the questions I really want answered.

Our now two adult children went to the gym together yesterday, and they were laughing and had funny antics that they were showing us. A secret handshake that includes a robot-like ending. It’s really funny and endearing. We used our ninja air fryer and the turkey burgers turned out really well! And everyone had their burgers a bit different with different fixings. I never realized how the children don’t really like fresh tomatoes? Which is crazy since we have so many tomatoes every year! My son made this stir-fry with a bunch of leftovers and it actually turned out okay. I was initially horrified that he dared alter a fundamentally amazing Vietnamese dish by combining it with some dishes, but when he stir fried it with some left over salmon poke bowl and a random chicken tender – it was actually transformed into something really interesting! But most importantly he ate it and there wasn’t any leftovers and we had less food waste in our kitchen.

I know the blog has become more my blathering than anything. But it helps me sort things out in the morning. I have to write a letter of recommendation today, try to finalize an abstract by a student group. I’m not sure if they got it done correctly? And then make sure I show up where I’m supposed to show up this week. I have to email Harvard an email from our family regarding our daughter, so that they can place her in the right dorm with the right roommate. Thank you Harvard – I really appreciate that care and consideration. And then I have to finish ordering our Harvard freshmen ad for the yearbook. So lots of Harvard things to do for our Harvard-bound youngest. How did she get in? I think she got in because she applied and she was qualified and an interesting candidate. And it doesn’t hurt that both her parents were alumni. But we are proud of her, because she was admitted to another Ivy League college and a few other top notch schools. So if she hadn’t got into Harvard, she would be freezing her tushy off in Ithaca! Phew. That would have been close! Cornell is really really really really COLD!