7-29-2020 Five Reasons to Be Hopeful This Wednesday – Dr. Plastic Picker
 

7-29-2020 Five Reasons to Be Hopeful This Wednesday

| Posted in Hopeful Wednesdays

Reached my 20 for the month. Got to reuse an old doggy food bag.

Juily 29, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It was a good day yesterday. It’s funny most of my climate work wins I posted on my actual personal facebook. They were real wins, so I wanted to share with the real people I know. I finished the Climate Reality Leadership Training and have my “Green Ring” now. And yesterday Bruce Bekkar told me that I was “putting [my] passion forward in such a powerful way, right out of the Climate Reality Training” and one of the other AAP Climate Change and Health said “AMAZZZZING” with many Zs. Twelve of us here had cosigned a letter regarding oil and gas setbacks, which is this complicated legislative process of trying to protect poor communities from oil and gas drilling sites. And our AAP Climate Change and Health Committee met for the first time, and I had the biggest smile on my face. I looked at their beautiful faces and how could I not have hope? True organic real connections between people. That is what I am trying to foster. Even if we make wins (which we will), the big win is that we are connected to eachother. It’s funny how I truly live these pithy quotes I used to just breeze through on Instagram and Facebook, leaders create more leaders.

But it was an exhausting day between all the climate work and my actual work which was extensive, and I was “home” with the kids but wondered at the end of the day if I was on the right path. But again another pithy quote I will paraphrase, the difference between hope and despair is a good nights sleep. And I had a good night, and now I realize yesterday was a good day and I needed that well deserved night of sleep.

It’s Wednesday! Hump day! I was supposed to work the late shift today, but one of the other doctors who usually works this shift wanted to give back a vacation day and she is going to work it. I get to just work my usual Wednesday morning so I’m grateful for that. There are two family members of colleagues who are sick today, and they are worried. I am worried for them, and will keep them in my thoughts and offer them my support. Life is not all roses and there is the stark reality of illness. But this is my hopeful wednesday post! So let’s look at the tidbits I saved and hopefully there are five reasons out there to be hopeful about the environment!

Five Reasons to Be Hopeful 7-29-2020

  1. Chief of Urgent Care Services at our HMO is now a litter picker! Yes you heard it here. This amazing woman leader and also I know Girl Scout Troop leader emailed me that after my “trashy talk” about HPV vaccines, that she ordered two metal grabbers and her family picks up a bag while they go on their evening walks. She emailed me a few days ago, and I wanted to really digest this amazing email. I will reply to her today. This made my heart so happy.
  2. Clinic Nurse and Colleage in our Office picks up litter with her family. One of the nurses in our clinic has two beautiful children, and a new puppy. They have been doing this for a while, but she let me know a few days ago that they have incorporated litter picking into their walks as well. She says the kids feel so empowered when they do this. This also made my heart so happy, as happy as number 1.
  3. Northern Esselen Tribe of California Regains 1,200 Acres of Ancestral Land. This is good news for multiple reasons. The state and an Oregon-based environmental group worked to regain 1,200 acre ranch in Big Sur that is the ancestral lands of this tribe. $4.5 million dollars was exchanged (which isn’t that much money????). As reported in the Guardian, “The deal will conserve old-growth redwoods and endangered wildlife such as the California condor and red-legged frog, as well as protect the Little Sur River, an important spawning stream for the imperiled steelhead trout. Tribal leaders say they’ll use the land for educational and cultural purposes, building a sweat lodge and traditional village in view of Pico Blanco peak, the center of the tribe’s origin story.” In general our blog is supportive of indigenous rights, but for carbon emssions standpoint the most important part is that this land won’t be developed and we remain an intact ecosystem with the old-growth forest and the river for the steelhead trout and other wildlife https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/28/northern-california-esselen-tribe-regains-land-250-years
  4. Court Strikes Down Trump Administration’s Rollback of Methane Rule. “In 2018, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rolled back parts of the prior rule that limited the release of the greenhouse gas. The change was expected to allow for more methane leaks in a process called flaring and add to air pollution. On Wednesday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers determined that the rulemaking process used by the BLM was “wholly inadequate.” . . . Earthjustice attorney Robin Cooley in a statement. “The judge said the administration cannot ignore the impacts on health and well-being of the people who live near oil and gas facilities.” https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/507647-court-strikes-down-trump-administrations-methane-rollback
  5. Wildflower Corridors in England to Boost Insect Numbers in England. All they are doing is going to cut down the verges of the roadways, twice rather than four times. “With 97% of wildflower meadows in Britain having been destroyed in less than a century, roadside grassland has become a crucial wildlife habitat for more than 700 species of wildflowers – nearly 45% of our total flora – including 29 of 52 species of wild orchid such as the rare lizard orchid. Roadside verges are increasingly important “wildlife corridors”, assisting the movement of plants, flowers and invertebrates across an increasingly fragmented countryside. But there has been a 20% decrease in floral diversity on road verges since 1990, in part because of overzealous cutting.” Wow, isn’t that crazy. Just by transforming what we think of untidy and clean, to regenerative and natural we allow these wildflowers and insects time to recover. Actually saves us all money! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/27/uk-roadsides-verge-wildlife-corridors-guidelines-wildflowers

And for my the most hopeful event of the week, was our first AAP Local Climate Change and HealthCommittee last night. I put on my green dress and eagerly awaited the young faces of our pediatricians and interns, and we chatted about our plans for the year. We made it. We are a committee. And we are on our way!

Happy faces.
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