Category: Climate Advocacy (AAP/Climate Reality/ClimateHealthNOW)

December 28, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Someone I love very much after a socially distanced and masked walk as I walked mostly 12 feet behind. The older I get, the more I realize I am so much like him. I did some yoga last night trying to center myself.

This blog is a mishmosh of trash art, cooking, climate activism, self-reflection and personal finance blogging. It’s a jumbled mess because that is what my real life is, a jumbled beautiful mess or people, committees and tangential things I think about in the early mornings as I blog. I think mostly I come to the blog to clear my mind by putting my often jumbled thoughts into prose, and somehow it makes the world make more sense.

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December 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m looking at yesterday’s trash art piece and I’m still blown away. This is going as a set to someone but as I look at it more there are layers and layers of meaning. When I make the trash art, I have to be in the right mindset and then it just comes. I honestly don’t know or understand what I’m making until it’s done. And then I relook at it and sometimes I get scared or awed at what my subconscious does.

This is the High Priestess and her two insectoid supplicants. They are bonded together by the wooden knitting needles which is my daughter’s which was broken and I carefully salvaged. The bodies are upcycled wine corks. I didn’t realize until I was discussing the pieces with several colleagues yesterday (I had randomly texted them the pictures of the pieces while we were discussing our institution’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout) is that I was really intriqued by each person’s eyes. Each eye is different and none of them are normal. The High Prietess has tunnel vision and is looking inward and her one eye socket is deep. The one eyed insectoid has an innocent wide eyed mouth, but sharp ends to protect the High Priestess. It also has a purple felt half heart and purple is the color of valor. Half a heart, is what we should bring to work. Then there is the insectoid supplicant with the disconjugate gaze. I now understand that this one is me. Looking looking everywhere. Scanning. Scanning with a visual field different than humans. Blunt arms ready to protect and defend the insect colony.

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December 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Dr. Plastic Picker is under attack! Yes my blogsite is under attack by a random brute force attack outside of the US (actually it looks like France). I was very upset about this, but I did more research and talked to my brother (also voluntary web consultant). I learned that this is just a random brute force attack. The danger is that getting into our site they could infect others. But Dr. Plastic Picker when I am attacked, I WAKE UP!!! I started researching online about how to parry this attack and made some simple changes. I’ve made some changes to increase the integrity of this site. And in the end, what are you attackers from France going to gain? This site is about picking up trash and I don’t store any data. But I do have my beloved blogs I’ve written, so I’ll work in the next few weeks to back everything up. This attack made me so mad, but I guess it was meant to be because I WOKE UP EARLY TO PROTECT MY SITE and I also did more environmental work because of it.

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November 19, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I miss my parents. It’s been almost 9 months of quarantine due to COVID-19. My parents live just about 2 miles from us, and I’ve stopped by to exchange food and drop off things. But it’s a hurried exchange and I’m always masked. My mother remembers to put her mask on now because I’ve scolded her enough. My father stays up on the 2nd floor and doesn’t come down. Life is just different. I’ve been strong this entire time and refused to see them, or come in to eat with them. It’s because I love them and I’m the most likely person to infect them given that our kids are back at school and I’ve worked every day of this pandemic seeing patients.

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November 18, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m not listing all the environmentally friendly activities that I’m doing as much on the “Secondary Environmental Net Positives.” I will publish that blog series maybe every other month now. The entire reason I had that series was to motivate me to make those small environmental changes and to give myself “credit” on the blog. It seems like these changes are just happening naturally, and I’m just going with the flow of life.

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November 14, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I ran into our Co-Founder of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air yesterday morning, and member of the AAP -CA3 Climate Change and Health Committee. We caught up very briefly about the environmental work she has been up to. Things are going fantastic for her and SDPCA. I guess there was already a steering committee member on the Air Pollution Control Board that is an MD, but she will be the alternate member. Having a pediatrician on the board is huge, and one of our Co-Founders of SDPCA nonetheless. She also is in contact with another residency talk to give a Clean Air and Pediatric Health lecture at another local program. This is fantastic. We have to log this into the Medical Society Consortium of Climate and Health. [Pause]. Done. Logged in that activity and let the two other Co-Founders of SDPCA know.

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November 5, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m giving a talk at UCSD School of Medicine PRIME HEq program this afternoon. I spent the last few days preparing for the talk, and did practice it last night with Mr. Plastic Picker. After my delivery I asked, “Should I take the Dr. Plastic Picker stuff out? Is it too long?” My Dear Husband and the originator of my eco-avatar name said I should keep it, and that it’s the most powerful part. I had delivered a different talk at the Sustainable Healthcare Project at VCU, but that was clearly a more motivational lecture. This is part of their official curriculum and mostly about air pollution and climate change. The talk is entitled “PEDIATRIC HEALTH & CLEAN AIR: ADVOCACY AS TREATMENT.”

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October 31, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I finished attending the National Children’s Health and Climate Leadership Forum. It was actually an impactful conference organized by the AAP and Eco-America. I was able to dialouge with climate leaders from a large swath of organizations including Faith leaders, American Lung Association, and other MD Climate Activists. I even met one fellow pediatrician from New York who private messaged me that she was a “Dr. Plastic Picker East Coast Fan.” I was so touched. Truly.

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October 30, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I am so proud to be our Eco-Champion for the Kaiser South Pediatric Clinics! Jenny Lusung RN at Bonita designated me for that role, so I think that makes it official. Jenny has asked me to write a regular item for the BOTAY Newsletter and this will be my first specific one for our great community. Thank you for allowing me a regular column in this virtual space. I am grateful.

I wanted to highlight the Eco-Choices that our community is making. Sometimes I live in my own head way too much between blogging, going to the beach to pick up plastic alone and trying to move the healthcare sector toward more sustainability. This week I attended the National Children’s Health and Climate Leadership Forum and again talked about myself. But when I get out of my own head and look around, I find the greatest inspiration from our work community. I thought I’d report to everyone the beautiful world I see moving toward sustainability and amplifying eachother’s voices!

Five Beautiful Eco-Moments

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