March 10, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I felt off yesterday. I think I need to go to the beach more. You can tell from my trashart yesterday that I made during our middle management meeting. That’s what I felt like, a false Super Hero with hair that was from the orange plastic piece from the premade flour tortillas I bought at Sprouts. At least the tortillas were made locally in San Marcos.

But my art got better toward the end of the day as I was able to sort everything (my work work and my climate work) out more. I finished some butterfly art pieces and they are more cohesive now. My mind sorted itself out, and after finishing Yoga by Adrienne (just a few minutes of Yoga For When You Are Stuck) and sleeping with my phone put FAR AWAY in the bathroom – I have risen anew. Risen in the dark at 436AM and it’s raining quite a bit.

I was talking to a close friend yesterday about climate work. Rambling, cajoling, crying and pouring my heart out. There is a position I want her to take which is a very important position, and she is mulling it over. I think she will take it, and I didn’t need to be as dramatic as I was yesterday. But I am trying to live an honest life and I told her all my feelings. She knows me fundamentally well in a way that many don’t. I want her to save the earth with me. I can’t do this particular position, as I’m not the right person – and it’s too political. So I will send a few emails to her and wait, and talk to others and what happens will happen.

Other than saving the earth and raising my own two human beings and supporting Mr. Plastic Picker, I have no grander goals in life. I have life scenarios and back-up plans B through Z – but I don’t know where life is going to take me. Perhaps that’s why the trash art person is the way she is. Heart of a super hero, hair of a tortillas wrapper, and arms of nerf gun bullets. Who are you, trash piece girl? Who are you, hanging on my fridge? The coolest part of her is that she is actually a refrigerator magnet and made from those cut up membership cards that I didn’t throw away. Albertsons, AMVETS – which group do you belong to trash girl? I do love your googly eyes though.

So in my discombobulated state of mind, I do need this Hopeful Wednesday post to anchor me. With my jumbled mind, I did pick up a big bag of trash yesterday and that helps sort my thoughts. Here is proof of my big bag.

Blogging helps me so much order my mind, and I sent the very important email out that had been weighing on my mind. Let’s no look at the Iphone picture cache and see what hopeful news we have for you! We create our own hope for the earth here at Dr. Plastic Picker! But there are others doing the same and let’s celebrate their work to help us get past hump day.

Five Reasons To Be Hopeful About the Environment 3-10-2021

1. European Bison Recovering Say International Union for the Conservation of Nature. “The European bison (Bison bonasus), Europe’s largest land mammal, has moved from Vulnerable to Near Threatened thanks to continued conservation efforts.” Looks like most of the conservation efforts have been from Romania where there are still bison roaming wild. The population increased from 1,800 bison in 2003 to over 6,200 in 2019 https://www.iucn.org/news/species/202012/european-bison-recovering-31-species-declared-extinct-iucn-red-list
2. Home Gardening Is the Answer. I haven’t really figured out home gardening, but we are gardening and we have lots of food. I’ve seen lots of friends and family order those grocert subscription boxes but it always seemed too expensive and I never like to overpay for anything. Anyway, we have tons of vegetables and fruits growing now. And I just really looked at the last offer and it’s $27.5 a box! OMG! It’s not a scam because it supports someone local and better than box store, but I don’t think that is attainable for most people. Better to appreciate what you grow at home and start easy like tomatoes and peppers. Anyway, I’m glad our family skipped that entire boxed veggies delivered thing and just increased our harvest from our own home. We have so much growing I give a bunch away at clinic as well. Now at least I can look at our harvest and put a dollar amount on it.
3. Mississippi River Cities To Map Plastic Pollution. This is from the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which I think our blog is officially a part of? Anway per the Baltimore Sun the “cities along the Mississippi River will take part in a global system to determine where plastic pollution comes from and how it ends up in waterways as a first step toward solving the problem.” They really should have a national ban on single-use plastics. That would work and we’d be done. But anyway, sometime the world takes incremental steps. I haven’t purchased a water bottle in 2 years.
4. Community Forest Advisory Board. This is a real thing. I had no idea. I just sent an email to them “My name is XXX, and I am a pediatrician and Assistant Chief of Pediatrics at Kaiser San Diego.  I am emailing in my volunteer role as American Academy of Pediatric (AAP) San Diego Climate Change and Health Co-Chair and Co-Founder of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air.  We are a group of 30 pediatricians who are friends, who also try to advocate locally, state and nationally on climate issues.  I am writing a research paper on urban green canopies and pediatric health , and I noticed online that our city had a Community Forest Advisory Board.  I had no idea.  This is very important as part of our work as climate change and health advocates, and clean air advocates.  Is there a seat or any open positions for someone from our group?” If you do not ask, you shall not receive. I think there are multiple members of our committee who would love to do this. If not , I would love to do this! https://www.sandiego.gov/trees/cfab
5. Economy is Shifting. This is always so much gloom and doom. But as Dr. Plastic Picker and picking up litter, I am viewing the world at the ground level and I see the changes. In the news, car company after car company is going electric. Volvo Cars to go fully electric by 2030. I talked to a parent in clinic and one father opened up a detailing car upgrade shop that pretty much blings electric cars, and their business is booming. One of our retired pediatrician’s daughter in law is a PhD in bees, and she has projects and job offers up the whazoo. So the world is shifting and I’m going to make my own pizza dough for tonight.

And with that, thank you Dear Readers for folllwing along. I find so much strength from your virtual support. No one is liking my facebook posts on Dr. Plastic Picker anymore, but we are getting at least 500-2000 page views a day. Someone is reading! And I am almost up to 1550 Instagram followers. It’s been all kinds of amazing. Time to prep the pizza dough for tonight! If I can make pizza, anyone can – with lots of veggies on top. OMG it’s perfect because I have mushrooms we need to use up and Mozarella and sauce. Dinner served!

Need more hope? Last time I needed hope was over a month ago, but here is the previous post in this series. If you want to see a funny mad snail – click here LOL https://drplasticpicker.com/2-17-2021-five-reasons-to-be-hopeful/