June 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Above is a screenshot of an instagram account by an environmental advocate in Nepal. Harish Joshi was interviewed on our blog several months ago https://drplasticpicker.com/introducing-harish-joshi-thursday-trash-reflections-from-nepal/. He is busy with his environmental advocacy and I find his account inspiring, as I find many teen environmental activist. This image he created reminded me that those everyday voluntary actions on behalf of a greater good, whether it be the environment or another cause, are incredibly powerful. I have written before about the power of agency and free will, and that although I believe society needs to systemically change and enact laws that benefit the environment – right now we also can help determine our future https://drplasticpicker.com/you-have-agency-you-have-free-will-you-are-your-own-determinant/. And this Hopeful Wednesday post is a voluntary act of gratitude and hope. I have a great sense of wellbeing this morning, that as a small person in a chaotic world – I am helping to calm the winds and reduce the heat and suck up more carbon than I am producing. By refusing a plastic bag at the store, this is a powerful first step to combating global warming.

Five Reasons to Be Hopeful this Wednesday 6-24-2020

1. Diego the Giant Galapagos Island Tortoise that helped save his species retires. Diego is over a 100 years old and was from the San Diego Zoo. This environmental hero helped save his species by producing 800 offspring. Indeed in the CNN report 40% of the endangered offspring are his! Well the hard-working Giant Tortoise has retired to his native home the island is Hispanola part of the Galapagos Island https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/16/americas/diego-tortoise-retires-home-scli-intl/index.html
2. Southern White Rhino Remarkable Recovery Due to One Natural Preserve. SouthernWhite Rhinos in 2011 numbered only 50 individuals. There numbers have increased 34,000% and now number 17,000 due to work at Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park (HiP) in KwaZulu-Nata, South Africa. That is how powerful one successful conservation organization can be. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/protecting-southern-white-rhinos-from-poachers-scn/index.html
3. Sixteen Spiny Seahorses discovered in Dorset, England. “During a single dive at Studland Bay, carried out since lockdown began, 16 seahorses, including pregnant males and two babies, were discovered.No seahorses had been seen in dives since 2018, when a dead one was found. Trust founder Neil Garrick-Maidment attributed the increase to a reduction in people, boat traffic and anchors.” https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-52889747
4. Ride Sharing Company Lyft will Transition to All Electric Vehicle Fleet by 2030. This news I got from Instagram but it was a paid post by the Environmental Defence Fund which is a legitamite organization. This will cut climate pollution from the transportation section, and benefit low-income communities who strugle with access to transportation – especially less polluting transportation.
5. Chubb Charitable Foundation commits $500,000 to the Rainforest Trust. Our blog has disproportionately supported the Rainforest Trust and currently many of our funds have gone to the Conservation Action Fund. Through that fund, $2 donation can conserve an acre of rainforest and is a cost efficient way to try to work on conservation. This is our donations page for Dr. Plastic Picker https://drplasticpicker.com/donation-round-up/. But the financial might of the Chubb Charitable Foundation is on the side of the green forces in the world. That is essentailly 250,000 acres they have preserved, and 75 million trees. Amazing. Check out what YouTubers and Teen Activist did. They saved 20 million trees. https://drplasticpicker.com/teenage-tiktok-torpedos-trump-rally-at-tulsa-dr-plastic-picker-is-your-biggest-fan/

Five environmental wins that I found in the world this week. Writing this Hopeful Wednesday post gives me a feeling of agency and power. I am continuing to pick up bags of plastic and am at bag #16 for the month and my goal was at least #20, so will get there likely for the month. After reading Drawdown and watching 2040, I am also focused on food as what we choose to eat actually has a huge impact on climate change https://drplasticpicker.com/my-path-is-more-clear-what-drawdown-and-2040-taught-me-about-climate-change/. We are trying to eat more plant-based and vegetarian, and trying vegan. This has been a remarkable journey that has helped us become healthier, helped the environment and also saved us money. I am keeping track now of the conscious vegan/vegetarian meals we make, and moments when I particularly tried to avert food waste. I will be keeping track of these moments in my Secondary Environmental Net Positives. For this month, we have had 27 vegetarian/vegan meals and 9 food waste projects. Hope this post helped you get past the hump day of Wednesday. I have a full clinic session this morning, and three to four hours of virtual meetings mostly about vaccines. But I look at these commitments with a sense of well-being, and also getting through each hour and each meeting (especially a certain MediCAL PIP meeting) gets me that much closer to the glorious weekend!

Out tween daughter and I want to try to make our own vegan black bean burgers this weekend that can be frozen for later use! We will let you know!

Need more hope? Click here to read last Wednesday’s Hopeful Post! https://drplasticpicker.com/6-17-2020-five-reasons-to-be-hopeful-this-wednesday/