April 19, 2022

by Dr. Plastic Picker

It’s 7am at the Plastic Picker household and we’re continuing to put our extracurricular efforts into trying to save the planet! Reminder! Dr. Plastic Picker despite giving notice that I’m stepping down from my official middle-management role (although I’m now the ping pong tournament organizer for our big HMO office!) am still a practicing pediatrician working essentially full time. Five years is a long time to do anything, and the middle-management work although I was back to being good at doing it – honestly was like attending histology class in medical school or going to the dentist. I could convince myself it was good for me, but it stopped being fun.

And Dr. Plastic Picker is all about fun these days! Saving the earth can be fun, especially when you are doing it with kind vegans/plant-based friends. The gallery opening for our Youth Art’s Exhibition #WeBorrowTheEarthFromOurChildren is a testament to this. It was so much fun and goodwill seaping through every corner of that room last weekend.

The whole process was so wonderful that we want to bring this to our friends in New York City and Kansas. More to come! Dream big Dr. Plastic Picker! As I always tell my kids, shoot for the stars and you’ll hit the moon. I do have to have our premedical interns write up a replication guide so that we can share with other pediatricians. Honestly, we have interest from Alaska and Brazil.

Otherwise, we had a big win yesterday at San Diego City Council that we are almost almost at the finishing line to get 200K for the unleaded fuel tank at Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport. This project began honestly in September when the Montgomery Gibbs Environmental Coalition let us know about leaded air pollution in this densely populated area of San Diego. This partially addresses the root cause of some developmental delay (adhd and autism) because leaded air pollution from aviation fuel is a pediatric neurotoxin. This would have only been possible because of the tireless efforts of Riley Gilbertson our UCLA premedical intern. That journey has also been amazing and coming to a close soon. We are presenting at Pediatric Academic Societies in Denver at the annual meeting, and Riley is presenting his poster. We are also part of a workshop on climate advocacy and work and bringing it into academia. I’m bringing along these Tshirts @madebyvan my amazing crafy sister (also Yale /Berkeley educated attorney sister) who donated her efforts to our cause. We are hoping to draw a decent crowd to tell our story in conjunction with some really great green friends.

And that is it! That is what I wanted to tell you – dear readers. So much is happeneing that is wonderful in my world. Here is just where I put down my thoughts, really my environmental journal to share with you and to remind myself the highlights.

I hope we can do this. I hope our world can come together to create a sustainable future. I’m just one pediatrician bringing along my community. Imagine if all of us just do a little bit, and others do a bit more – then that is how we bend the arc toward a sustainable future. Much love to you all. Real pediatrician hiding behind an eco-avatar – DR PLASTIC PICKER!!!!