June 28, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Good morning pediatric climate activist! The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Chapter 3 San Diego Imperial County (CA3) Climate Change and Health Committee is alive and well. I just paid $755.17 to renew my personal AAP national membership ($676), CH Chapter 3 Membership ($66.67) and Council on Environmental Health (COEH) Fellow Package ($12.50). Although I am usually very frugal, the $755.17 is well worth it and it lends our work credibility to work within the auspices of a larger organization. Plus, now I can consistently put FAAP (Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics) – Fellow COEH (Committee of Environmental Health) in my emails. So much of life is just about showing up. Just updated my Who Is Dr. Plastic Picker Page with these credentials https://drplasticpicker.com/about-me/. Go me.

In all seriousness, we have made great strides in our committee and I wanted to give the blog readership an update. Our mission statement was published in the AAP-CA3 Coastal Currents which is the email letter that goes out to all the chapter memers. Here is it

AAP-CA3 Climate Change and Health Committee. Our mission is to simultaneously promote the health of both San Diego’s children and its ecosystems by empowering children through education and outreach to protect their environmental resources and in turn improve their own physical and mental health. We support measures that combat climate change and promote a healthier environment for our children. If you’d like to join, please contact one of the committee Chairs.

Dr. Sally Kaufman gets credit for the well worded mission statement. Dr. Plastic Picker attended my 2nd Chapter Advisory Committee meeting and gave the CAC committee our commitee update. There are so many acronyms now, but I’m getting them sorted out because this climate work is actually important.

Climate Change and Health Committee Quarterly Update

1. AAP NCE San Diego 2020, Climate Change & Health Service Activity: Physical ocean beach clean-up is cancelled since
   the conference is virtual. In discussion with AAP NCE to consider a virtual clean up event, where people individually clean and then social media campaign. Service activity consultant now in contact with national Climate Change & Health Committee so that environmentally themed service events might be considered for Philadelphia.
2. Climate Change & Health Committee Members: Attempting to have every 2 month ZOOM meetings and in the process of setting up. SK organizing.
3. Youth Art Exhibition Re Climate Change: In process of organizing a yearly service project for committee. Have Children’s Art Council and youth involved, and we are organizing a youth art exhibition that will be digital and then end in a physical exhibition hopefully spring/summer 2021.
4. UCSD PRIME HEq Program: VN in contact with director as the MS3 are rotating through HMO. Offered to organize a lecture on climate change and racial health disparities. SK is reaching out to Lisa Won regarding content for general MS3 curriculum as well.
5. Climate Action Campaigns (CAC): Wow. This has the same acronym as Chapter Advsiroy Committee! SK and VN are doing this officially outside of the AAP, but we are on the new Public Health Advisory Board and have committed to work on 3-4 climate projects with other health providers. SK will likely be voted onto the board this week. Not sure how we can bring in AAP? AAP CA3 CAC answer is that it may dovetail and just bring the updates up during the AAP CAC meeting.
6. AAP All California Chapters Joint Climate Resolution: I was told at the national call that this was already done for all 4 California Chapters. But locally there is a committee AAP CA3 which approves resolutions and they are aware of it, and it has not been approved yet. Nothing we need to do. It should be approved soon at some other nebulous meeting.
7. AAP MOC 2 Climate Change and Health: SK is working with Dr. Lisa Patel (Chapter 1 climate advocate UCSF ) to create content.

We had a new pediatrician join our commitee, so we are up to 10 pediatricians and 2 premed volunteer interns. The big push will be force us to get the Children’s Art Council applications out and volunteers solidified by end of July. We also need to set up our first official Zoom meeting for middle of July. I will need to touch base with everyone regarding a good time. I’m going to learn the new Doodle program which seems like the in thing now for coordinating meeting times. And that is it. I started 3 different blog posts that are in different stages, but this is the one that needed to be completed today. Thank you for following along and helping me organize my thoughts and our environmental work.