Month: September 2026

September 27, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

My upper arms are nice and sore this morning! Yesterday I was at Sweetwater Park near the E street marsh and at Gunpoweder Point. Last time I had been there was over 15 years ago, and I remember that area well from junior high and high school years. I had taken Marine Biology as an elective one summer at Hilltop High School, but we essentially spent a glorious summer at what was known back then as “The Chula Vista Nature Interpretive Center.” It was such a wonderful peaceful summer observing birds and fiddler crabs, and coloring sheets about marine life.

So I was back at that area, now as Dr. Plastic Picker and a pediatrician. There was a general call out to help in the area, and I had sent it out to our department and also at our clinic. We had 5 amazing youth and adults from our own clinic, and we helped plant 100 native plants into a barren area that had packed dirt after likely decades of industrial use.

It felt so very wonderful being there with two of my own patients. We dug holes and planted native plants, and we created berms and watered the berms multiple times. We applied sunscreen, and hydrated out of a common watering station. We made sure we all rested and hydrated. I saw someone watering one of the new plants in the ground and there was this beautiful rainbow that blessed her.

I really enjoyed digging those holes! I think in total my pediatric patient and climate partner dug 15 holes and we planted 15 native plants together. We noticed a spider, and I noticed that he noticed a spider. It was a really interesting spider. We got to share these patches that now medical student Wayne Mai made years ago!

Sharing those patches with the youth that came by felt REALLY REALLY GOOD! I had paid for those patches years ago, and it had been designed with love by one of our then premedical students (who is now a medical student). I had lost them and then I found them this summer! So they are finally being put to good use.

We have about 150 more patches? So I’ll make sure to do enough events to deploy the rest of the patches. This is our contribution from San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air!!!

It felt so good to learn how to dig holes! I had honestly never thought about how to dig a good hole. I got to share with my husband, my in-laws, and my own extended family (especially my nephew) how interesting it was to dig holes in the impacted dirt. He gave me some pointers on wearing real boots next time we dig holes. He said it would have made it easier.

But my upper arms are sore and I have a well earned blister, and I am so happy that I was able to be with four really wonderful people I know from work and clinic. We helped plant 100 native plants at an area that is an important habitat for native birds in the south county.

And I got to think about digging holes and watch other people dig holes, and I told my 17 year-old patient that how one approaches digging holes is really a metaphor. It was good to get down into the ground and do some real climate work yesterday!

September 24, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It is almost a month since we dropped our youngest off at Harvard for First-Year move in. So much has happened in a month. I had started this blogpost to update the readership but it was there half started, because I wasn’t really ready to share or talk about things. I don’t ever think as a parent one gets over your child growing up, and moving into college and their adult lives. High school friends family had similar posts, children who we have known since 4 now settling into their dorm rooms. It was wonderful to see on facebook their smiling faces and excitement. We were also living in our own family and drama, as every family has different dynamics and birth orders and number of remaining children at home and different lives outside of our parenting. But it was good to see that the stage we were in, others were in as well.

Move-in a month ago went very well. There was the mad dash to her packed as she would be the first to actually move cross country via plane. I remember sitting at work about 3 weeks before she was flying out and thinking, “gosh, she needs to get things actually into her suitcases.” We had no plan, but did have a deadline with the day we were flying out together as a family of 3. She was very organized with her list, and the last few weeks at home with me were lovely – especially now that I am thinking back in the quiet of my empty house. She needed to pick up dorm essentials at Target. She needed a better bathroom caddy. Towels. Bathrobe. One container of her bathroom needs to get by before she figured out how to navigate Harvard square. We needed stationary, and she needed face-masks so that maybe she would have a face-mask party with the college girlfriends. Which dress should she bring? Which shoes did she need? How cold was it going to get, and did we need to buy the winter gear here? We ended up at REI and at Carlsbad outlets and bought some outerwear and fleeces that would get her through at least the beginning of the fall. It was this lovely time and rushing home from work, because she needed to be driven somewhere and wanted to see her childhood spots one last time.

The actual Harvard move-in was lovely. Everything happened honestly seamlessly. The timing for each uber ride, T ride, dorm drop off and coffee-meet up with our newly transplanted child was perfect. Mr. Plastic Picker and I were amazed and nostalgic and excited for her. We helped her move into her actual room, and didn’t over buy. We met her roommates and saw the environment that she would be navigating for the next four years. We walked down streets and neighborhoods that we knew so well as students, but now really belonged to her. Her Harvard experience has been so vastly different than ours, but it’s comforting knowing the names of the buildings and the streets and having some basis of knowing where she is.

We saw students from San Diego from rival high schools, and had impressions and thoughts – that likely are not true at all anymore. And those students were characters in the first few weeks, and they’ve faded as new friends and roommates and classes and activities have crowded her days. We got to live with her fully for the three days we were together, moving her in and making sure she was settled. After much back and forth with my own sister, we had purchased for her super fancy (for us) luggage from AWAY as her college luggage set. I had never bought fancy luggage like that for myself, but for her – we wanted her to have something nice. And we made the Harvard instagram account with our luggage that had 3.5 million followers! That was an entire adventure in itself.

And since move-in, we’ve had 30 days of text messages and facetimes and conversations and updates. Harvard Move-In day was beautiful. She joined the Harvard class of 2030.

So somewhere in that crowd is our daughter, who joined the class of 2030. She’s an adult now and settling in, and living her life. I want to give her privacy and she’s been so giving to allow me to share some of her childhood with my patient sand parasocial friends. But it’s time for me to let that part go. It’s been so beautiful sharing these stories with the blog readership and with so many of my real friends. Thank you for cheering us on, and we’ll continue to do the same for you and mostly for our earth! There is still a lot of climate work to do!

September 9, 2026

It was so hot yesterday that the H3SD San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit sticker partially melted into one of our extra programs. I have the programs in the back of my car and extra stickers, and I’m using them strategically through the next year to raise awareness of the next summer’s summit and the work that our coalition is doing.

I was so hot yesterday and sweaty, and I felt looked horrible on camera. But after thinking out it, it’s freakin +100 degrees and it was HOT. I had just come from an important to me trip from Boston, and saw a full morning of patients thoroughly and met with two important UCSD student leaders on their projects.

I’m giving myself a lot of grace this morning! I’m not sure if you are following, but you should some of the normal environmental accounts and we have now crossed the 1.5 degree threshold. Greta Thunberg is one of the young youth activists that is now an adult that initially activated me, and her last Instagram message is very clear-sighted.

My daughter is settled now up in Boston and started her first year at Harvard. She is allowed to stress about her language classes and making friends in her Shakespeare course, and I’m allowed to continue to try to save the world for my children. It’s hard to miss her, when I know she is safe for now in Boston and the other child is in San Francisco. They are adults now, and figuring out their lives with plenty of support from us. But I don’t have too much time to be sad, because this was the entire point. I’m getting them ready for the world that is fast approaching, and trying to help save millions if not billions of lives by continuing to be a climate activists!

Lots to do! Was on CBS 8 news yesterday which was in the end really important. Anything that generates coverage, and gets folks talking – even if I think I don’t look good on camera. I need to give myself grace! And I got to tell San Diego the links between extreme heat and mental health emergencies and child abuse, and also the importance of DE-ISOLATING ourselves. Connection and community, is really what is going to help us to continue to mitigate the worse of the upcoming disaster story.

Anyway, I don’t really feel bad about looking not great – because I’m a real doctor! I was seeing patients and needed to wear a facemask to make sure my unvaccinated patients don’t get sick -despite me reminding them to get vaccinated. I also was wearing a facemask because I saw a few newborns and wanted to make sure they didn’t get anything from me since I had just traveled. The facemask is not great on my foundation. Oh well! And then my eyebrows disappeared – AGAIN!

It is painful being a climate and health doctor, but all of this I do at great pains to my ego – because I am here to save lives.

I had a great meeting with two UCSD premedical student leaders, so I have a to do check list that I need to work through on their fast fashion project. I need to write a letter of recommendation for someone else for the Rhodes fellowship. I need to write another letter for someone for psychiatry residency. We have two articles we want to write about for the San Diego Physician Magazine, which I will circle back to my co-authors on. I have to reach out to Kaiser Mid Atlantic pediatrician who wants to do the same thing I’m doing, but in Mid Atlantic. I need to reach out to Kaiser medical school to see when they want me to go up to teach there. I need to reach out to our regional person regarding coding heat related injuries, which none of us are doing correctly. He came to our summit.

So lots to do! So just wanted the blog readership know that I am here! Still fighting for the earth. It’s still so darn hot that I’m going to try to jog a bit but at 6am!!!! Mr. Plastic Picker was supposed to take me for a walk yesterday but he came back too late and we had a haphazard dinner instead and fell asleep.

It’s okay though, some of it is the heat! But here was my reward for all my continued work on behalf of our community and children – I took a quick trip to see my special person in Cambridge to give her a hug.

I still am in amazement that she got into Harvard and is in the class of 2030! There are so many epic story lines happening during this time. I hope that you pick the side of good and do something to help stop catastrophic climate change!

September 2, 2026

by Dr. Plastic Picker

This is what I posted on my personal facebook and social media

“This was the honor of my lifetime, to meet Yahushua Robinson’s mother and sister. In August 2023, a 12-year-old student, Yahushua Robinson, suffered a fatal heat-related illness during a PE class held in extreme temperatures. California Senate Bill 1248 (SB 1248), also known as Yahushua’s Law, was introduced to prevent tragedies like this. At H3SD 2026, I co-presented with a powerful panel of like minded women and mothers on the importance on “Cooler Schools, Healthy Kids.” This was a call to action, and the four of us from AAP San Diego, Scripps So Cal Heat Hub, Green Schoolyards of America and Christina Laster from Stanford are committed to work together to make sure this does not happen to another child. Yahushua Robinson’s mom told us that she felt loved and supported at H3SD, and hopeful. We all brought our daughters to this breakout session, and we all connected. Wanted to share this meaningful moment.”

There are many moments from H3SD 2026 that I will remember. Joy, irritations, relief and exhaustion. This year was a harder summit for me, for various reasons and I’m committed to making sure the team works well together next cycle and that we iron out the frictions that happened. But overall, the team did amazing and the most important part is that the entire summit happened. And through many different break-out sessions and moments through the summit, we inspired and motivated each other to continue the different climate projects that we are responsible for.

For me, meeting this group of speakers was crucial for my work. I have to thank Nan Renner from Scripps So Cal Heat Hub for keeping us all together. My part was very short, and it was a montage presentation with some powerful speakers. But we delivered that session, and the most important part is that a family that had a young boy die of heat stroke and channeled that event into something productive (legislative action) were brought into the H3SD fold. It was an honor to meet Yaushua Robinson’s family. They were there at the summit with his picture, to remind us that he was here with us and that he is no longer here. This death was preventable and we need to prevent it, and also try to continue to address global heating.

So rather than just pontificating, I have things to do. I will reply to an email chain that is on my work email. We will set up a meeting with some people from Stanford and the AAP California. I need to myself read up on stuff, to make sure I fully understand the policy landscape. I need to loop in one of the UCSD graduates who is applying to medical school this next cycle. This will be her project.

I also need to write two letters of recommendations before I fly out on Friday to Boston.

I didn’t blog about it, but our daughter left for college and had an interesting and good transition to Harvard. Her first class is today. I miss her quite a bit. But I’m lucky that I had her at home for me for so long, and now she has to go to college! But I get many text and pictures throughout the day. I get to check her LIVE 360 to see where she is. And my daughter got to meet and hug Yaushua’s older sister at the session. All of the speakers’ daughters were there and got to see their mothers try to make the world safer for kids during extreme heat event. I am so grateful this happened, and for the advocacy work that I still need to do!