I can’t describe it any other way. There was a thunder storm of mucus in my left ear on both legs of our flight to Oregon. We are back on the farm after a year and a half. We own a large tree farm almost ranch up near the Cascades. I caught one of the worst colds of my life last week and had to call in sick for two days. It only equated to one day of sick leave, as I was only half days those days. But after working extra PE clinics and a Sunday call and just being around sick kids, at some point we all get sick. And I got sick. I thought I was better, and I certainly am from the fever and the body aches. But the mucus was intense in my left ear. And then on the ascent and descent from the airplane, the mucus decided to obey the laws of physics and responded to the ambient pressure changes. I had the most intense ear pain (otalgia) I had ever had on my plane trip. And then upon landing and not being able to hear out of my left ear, the mucus finally partially cleared and I could hear again. But honestly, the only way I can describe it – was it sounded like a thunder storm in my left ear. Twice I heard the thunder storm in my left ear, and suddenly I was able to hear again. It was such an odd experience.
It’s been a long moment since I’ve been on the blog. Apologies dear readers. As many of you know as we interact on other platforms, it’s been a June that none of us could have predicted. When you look back at last June, did you think this June would have happened?
I’m continuing to try to be impactful for the climate, and realizing it’s organizing bigger projects to move the national conversation. Mr. Plastic Picker is worried about the upcoming election, but strangely I am not. I guess I have somewhat tunnel vision in that I just want to play the role I’m supposed to play, and do my part. And the projects that I am working on, because they are all volunteer and usually with students and within the healthcare sector, are not limited by national politics. A lot of climate work can be done whether it be one political party or the other in power. The earth is neither conservative or liberal, the earth is the earth. Climate is climate. And I’m always grateful we live in a democracy (albeit imperfect).
This morning I have to finish two advocacy projects, finish calling the last 5 remaining legislators for sb1197. This is the leaded aviation fuel bill that is making it’s way through the different committees. Despite having some premedical students on the team, it’s hit or miss depending on their schedules. I get it. They are young. It’s graduation and many of them are moving home, and starting their summers. But one of the medical students is calling 5 of the legislators which helps quite a bit. It’s nice to do these advocacy projects together.
Then there is sb1137 which is the KEEP THE LAW gas and oil setbacks bill, and defending this win. There is a very large state coalition working on this. But locally, I’ve been helping to mentor a high school student Daniel Hernandez who is actually from my old high school (go Bonita!) and he has been doing very well. He’s linked with two large climate organizations and a good public speaker, so now has some leadership positions. I’m reminding him to pace himself and be strategic in his efforts, because he needs to also make time to apply to college and be a teenager. But I’ve linked him up with another post-bac student Kiran Rhodes and they are going to try to co-author an op-ed in the Chula Vista papers on SB1137. Likely we will win on this as there is a lot of money being donated state-wide to this effort, but it doesn’t hurt to do our part in our local municipalities and it gives a good student op-ed writing experience.
There is the fossil fuel divestment bill as well, SB 252 which directs the public employee pensions to divest from fossil fuels. Both AAP California and the Public Health Advisory Council for Climate Actions Campaign supported it last year. It did not pass. This years bill, we both support. So I just emailed the groups and got a consensus, so will draft a quick letter with some fancy signatures and send it off.
What else? Oh the H3SD 2024 San Diego’s Heat and Human Health Summit is well on it’s way to it’s second iteration. This summit was born out of so much love and passion, and me wanting to make connections in San Diego. I’m still waiting to hear about HMO funding for it, and my good friend and old medical school classmate Dr. Luis Castellanos has the medical school on board. But waiting and waiting for funding is really silly. I’m sure they will come through. But our family has committed to about 10-15K if our HMO bails. I’m used to working in big organizations, and for us as a dual physician couple who understand the true nature of climate change – it’s worth it 100%. But I hope they pay up because their name is all over this! I won’t tell anyone that we paid, but it will be an open secret in the climate and health world locally. Just in case any of them read this blog. It’s honestly somewhat embarrassing the way I have to go grubbing around for money in the world for climate work, when the world wastes so much money on many things. Like the number of managers in our department have ballooned yet things are being managed more poorly. Does that make any sense? I never see any of them around. Yet there are more of them.
Oh well. I’m just in charge of myself these days, and the earth.
Our kids are doing great! We don’t fly unnecessarily, so only our son is on his epic trip and he’s in Japan but staying there for a long time. It’s almost 3 weeks and we are so grateful for this. We are headed up to Oregon to our farm, and much needed time just Mr. Plastic Picker, myself and our teen daughter. We’ll hike around our pasture land, and meet up with the fish biologists as we have a Riparian Lands Tax credit since we are not developing any of the land – but especially not the special land around the riverbanks. A large creek that comes down from the cascades goes through our property (the Upper Cow Creek) and it’s important for fish habitat. I believe they are going to demo the Galesville damn near us soon which will be great for the fish. It’s exciting to have been able to buy that property and to make sure it does not get developed. Some one asked me is we could just build a town there, and I looked at them confused – because why would we do that? We are supposed to infill our urban areas and take public transport, and then leave these wild areas wild so they can continue to sequester carbon.
Thank you for letting me chatter on about life and the continued climate work. At UCSD the San Diego Union Tribune said the students did not really react to Al Gore’s speech. It’s not that they don’t care about climate change, 100% they do. It’s just that they don’t trust the admin who called police on their friends, and who wants to cheer on a speaker who doesn’t even know them introduced by a chancellor they no longer trust. It’s hard to earn back the trust of people. Just random thoughts when I was reading the SD-UT. Indeed, this June is not the June we would have predicted a year ago. But it’s the June we have, and I’m grateful to be alive (because I was really sick last week) and grateful to be able to blog.
I loved seeing all my classmates’ Harvard 25th reunion pictures! I know many of them had not seen each other in years and it was good to live vicariously with them as they transversed the campus and took pictures of spots that I hadn’t seen in a long time. I felt like I was drinking with them at the Hong Kong, despite having only been there once in college and not actually having drunk there at all. I am so glad to see Harvard through their eyes and lenses. I was sleeping next to my Harvard, as Mr. Plastic Picker and I were both alumni – so I told him that between the both of us that was Harvard enough.
I was planning on going to the Harvard 25th reunion but my body was really tired, and it had been more of an emotionally taxing time than I let myself realize. Earth Month and all the speaking engagements were taking their toll. For some reason I ended up in Tuscon AZ speaking at a conference, and it went well and I was meant to be there – but I was away from my family and alone and had to travel. I prepared a new talk, and met all these great people – but for an introvert it is fundamentally draining. There were more speaking engagements. Then the premedical students need advising, and they are wonderful – but they sometimes ask too much of me. As I advise them voluntarily, I have to set limits and let them know what is appropriate to ask for and what is inappropriate. And some of the requests were inappropriate. It’s okay for them to ask, but I have to say no and teach them why I have to say no. That is part of the mentoring. The newsletter for our group came out, and we were busy doing the good deeds that need to be done. But for all those reasons, and my mother-in-law having a stroke, my son has alternate travel plans, and I’m trying to save vacation days for other important things – I decided not to travel and I’m glad I stayed home.
It was such a wonderful weekend honestly. I’m trying to re-boost the composter to start hot composting again. I got some coffee grounds from Vons/Starbucks and I’m hopeful that will do the trick. I need to add more water to the composter as I think it’s kind of dried out. I am deep cleaning the house and making multiple runs to Goodwill and donating things at the library. It feels really good. I am at the point that I don’t think anyone is going to read my collection of the Black Stallion books! So it’s been given back into the free circular economy so that hopefully we all start to consume less. I got stuck behind the Goodwill truck in an alleyway, and was just thinking of alleyways and that I’m not sure if the AlleyWay project that one of the UCSD professors is doing makes much sense. People get kind of possessive of their alleyways. I helped my son make a graduation card for a party, and we wondered if he would come home versus spend the night at a friend’s house. He came home last night, and I saw him in his bed and I was so happy. I am going to wash his curtains today because they are so dusty.
And most importantly I got to be here this weekend, with my family. We had dinner at my brother’s house and I saw all our boys that are so tall and growing into good men and handsome – get ready for their cousins trip with their cool uncle to Japan. We laughed so much that night, and I made jokes and we had memories together as an extended family that are so important. And our nieces from New York are coming in August. They asked to come for the week, and of course they are welcome to home into our home. I told them last summer that our home is their home, and that they can visit anytime. I’m so grateful for that.
If I had gone to the reunion, we would never had found our new sushi place. So I missed you all that were at the 25th reunion, but it was kind of like missing the classmates when they would go out on the weekends and I would stay home and study. I was always more of an introvert anyway. I have a lot of climate homework and family homework to do. If that makes any sense.
It’s amazing how many climate projects our family is involved with or has donated to or a part of. Some of them are more controversial and not everyone agrees with how to decarbonize, so I don’t want to hurt folks feelings and don’t share some of it. And some of them are because of personal connections that are so complicated but innocent, that I only tell close friends. Being emmeshed in climate work locally has been a wonderful thing. I feel so connected and loved, and I’m able to give forth love.
And that’s what our family felt yesterday. We have been embraced and we embrace the wonderful people at the San Diego Audubon Society. We went as a family to their 75th anniversary gala. Mostly I’ve been working with San Diego Audubon by bringing a healthcare voice to the Rewild Mission Bay work. But under that umbrella, met so many wonderful organizations and amazing conservationists and climate minded people. When you fight for something you love together, it brings you closer to really wonderful people.
There were so many wonderful people there yesterday. And we are so grateful we went.
I am so sad today. I am so disappointed in what happened on campus 5/6/2024 at 5am in the morning at UCSD. The encampment at UCSD was entirely peaceful. I know too many students and faculty who can testify to that. Students were having peaceful gatherings and fostering community and discussion. And now after students were exercising their freedom of speech and assembly and speaking their truth, they were mocked and hurt by entities of authority and supposed trust. It’s heart breaking to me to see the students hurt, and mostly that their trust and idealism smashed. They saw an injustice and used their voice to ask the university to address that injustice. I don’t agree with everything the student movement asserted or asked for, but I certainly agree with their rights and the spirit of their actions. Then administrators and law enforcement officers of a city /municipality that many of them were raised in and chosen to spend these crucial years of learning, hurt them. Student and trusted peaceful religious figures were maced and beaten. There were snipers. This is absolutely ridiculous
The failure of leadership is so obvious. That the powers that be are trying to intimidate and instill fear into these students, shows the depth of some kind of deception or corruption. I do not pretend to know everything, but I do know when something seems fishy. If you are paid 1.5 million dollars to manage the university and you had to have police arrest peaceful students when other universities were able to address the protest differently, then you have failed. You do not deserve your 1.5 million dollars. You made how many more times my salary, and I work tirelessly for my patients (for which I am paid) and then for my community (for which I am not). I am unimpressed with your academic accolades. I am incredibly angry at this chancellor although I have never met him. In the end I am paid to take care of my patients and I take that responsibility seriously. In the end you are paid to take care of the UCSD students (and at the core are the undergraduates) and you failed.
And for those that are trying to rewrite/reframe what was happening at the UCSD encampments. I see it on some news outlets. Shame on you. Shame on you for trying to gaslight these students. The students will remember. When they become leaders in their fields when the rest of you have long left San Diego because you were never from here nor cared about these students and our region, you will be reminded when you had to made an important decision – and you decided wrong.
Around town doing errands getting ready for her party.
May 4, 2023
by Dr. Plastic Picker
I became a climate and health advocate around the same time my own daughter was entering her tween and teen years. Mixed in the city council advocacy and trying to address the existential threat of climate change at the regional level, I was mothering a tween and now a teen. I usually end my talks with a picture of her, because she’s incredibly pretty and accomplished, and I talk about my hope for what the world will look like for her in 15 years. I am incredibly greedy, ambitious, petty, loving and immature – when it comes to my own daughter. But usually I try to channel these normal emotions into good, by working harder for climate and health. I want for her what I want for all our children, a livable planet. I am five years into my promised 10 years of activism for her and your children’s future, and I’m incredibly proud of all that I’ve been able to accomplish in our small corner of the world.
So today is a big day for her, because we are celebrating her sweet 16. As a pediatrician, I’ve doctored and guided so many children and families through the pangs of childhood and adolescence. I feel incredibly grateful to have two children, who are a credit to our families. They represent the best of Mr. Plastic Picker and myself. As I see both children step forth into the world with their talents, passions and beauties – I feel satisfied with my life and am okay with getting older. It’s the natural cycle of life, decay and rebirth. From compost comes the flowers, and I am now the compost and my son and daughter are blossoming. I think much of the preoccupation with youth and beauty in our world, is because we are ignoring children and ignoring the true beauty of youth and their promise. When I see the teens and tweens, I see the results of parents and grandparents that have come through my clinic. I remember my own parenting, and see every day how exhausting and demanding each stage of child rearing truly is.
So I don’t botox my body. I don’t plastic surgerize myself. I try to exercise and eat well, and I asked my mother-in-law to trim my own hair two days ago. Given that she recently had a stroke and a concussion and is in her 80s, I thought I was incredibly brave! LOL. But I love her, and I am busy with life and doctoring and mothering, and honestly don’t worry about myself too much. But somehow my patients love me and the parents and nurses like my outfits. I think it’s mostly that I am happy these days, because I am enjoying my children and I have so much purpose in life.
We have lots of projects going and I need to send our May Newsletter out. We have our meeting for our advocacy group soon. I have three letters of recommendations to write. I have a paper to write with our writing group. I need to hug some residents who need hugs because being a resident and trying to create a family is hard when you are working 80 hours a week.
But today. Today I will concentrate on her. To my daughter, I have 130 silly emails I sent to someone dreaming about you and your future. I have another growing 10 silly journal entries lamenting on now discarded dreams and forming new dreams for you. But woven in those silly emails and journal entries and instagram and facebook posts, was snippets of your childhood between 14 and 15. I have been so lucky to live each day with you. The days are longer for mommy. I eagerly wait to see you wake up, and whether you’ll be pouting or smiling. I wait for our walks together, so you can tell me your teen stories for the day. But you and oppa are so busy now with your lives. Thank you for involving me in yours. Thank you for being an incredibly brave, smart, beautiful and accomplished girl. That I’ve been your mother for 16 years has been the greatest gift I’ve been given. You were the baby that almost didn’t make it, as you were born so early. And yesterday we were chatting about your sweet 16 and who was coming and who wasn’t, and you just casually mentioned your expected grades for this upcoming trimester without batting an eyelash. Given that your mother is Harvard-trained, how is it that I have a daughter that is smarter than I am? And with that, I feel incredibly empowered to save the world for you (and oppa). The boy part, you’ll figure out yourself. Mommy was jumping the gun. How did I ever raise someone smart enough to have the dreams that you are having. Shoot for the stars and all the plans we’ve been talking about. We are not the normal mother-daughter pair. You inspire me everyday to work harder for the earth and for our community. Happy birthday to the sweetest teen that I have ever met.
I don’t think you realize how incredibly beautiful you are. And it’s the internal part. It shines through.
I’m in Tuscon with Dr. Bear. Dr. Bear, the AAP San Diego Social Media animal. I’m speaking at a conference (did not take any honorarium!) at the Integrative Medicine Conference and I’m realizing that even these physicians don’t all “get it.” I’ve worked with so many different physicians on climate advocacy and a good number have been amazing integrative medicine fellowship trained. My friends Drs. Melanie Fiorella, Kathy Kemper and Sandra Gee are all collaborators and amazing. But as I was sitting at dinner with the other conference presenters, I realize that probably a majority don’t know how dire the climate crisis is and that someone needs to try to activate them.
So I’m in Tuscon in a nice hotel room with a stuffed animal, by myself. I miss my family honestly. I actually don’t like traveling, and if there wasn’t a huge global heating problem – I wouldn’t be here and honestly don’t want to be here. But I’ve accepted my life being pushed by the universe to go where I’m meant to go and I’m noticing the things I’m learning and the experiences I never would have had. If I hadn’t become Dr. Plastic Picker, I would never had the conversations I had yesterday and life is honestly interesting.
I get to have several famous UC San Diego professors as friends. One of my friends Prof Adam Aron told me to come to this event, and to speak to these doctors. He was the original one who was invited to speak. But he is very tired and has been doing so much for the climate movement, and it’s important to share in this work. So I was there sitting across from very famous integrative medicine doctors and researchers, and I had absolutely no idea who they were. I saw the famous Andrew Weil though, and I only really know him just because I saw his picture on the internet. But I got to see the dynamic and community they have here in Tuscon in the Integrative Medicine Department – and the mix of personalities. I probably will never get to see them again, but I talked to them and connected as much as I could.
Today I’ll give a talk. It’s the best that I had. I tried.
First slide.
And here I am, and I think I did create a new talk for them. And I’m reminded that I’m enough. You are enough. And I flew here (it just didn’t make practical sense to drive) and used two of my precious vacation days to speak at a conference of people I don’t know and would never take and cannot take any honorarium. This conference is about 370 attendees and it takes an entire team to put this together and they charge quite a bit. I think the economics of conferences is interesting. Our H3SD Heat and Human Health Summit in San Diego will only be local attendees and will be free, and will be amazing. That’s the conference of my heart. But I still have to travel to these summits, and I am hoping that integrative medicine doctors will be key in helping to address decarbonization and global heating.
But I think today the most important person I will see is a high school friend who is a professor at University of Arizona. Ricardo Valerdi I actually know and is founder of “Science of Sports.” I’m getting to talk to the sports medicine department at University of Arizona and their team physician Mark Sakr. I texted Ricardo on the plane over from San Diego, and yesterday he was able to snag me a speaking spot with Mark and his team today. I’m going to share the extreme heat and youth sports workflow. And share my brief story. I think that will be the most impactful.
I haven’t been blogging as much and I thank the readership for their patience. Earth Day and April as Earth Month has been absolutely a whirlwind of conference talks and projects. And here on the blog I can be honest. It’s been exhausting. But I’m almost done. And I get to see a close friend from childhood, and have dinner with his family tonight. Gosh, I can’t remember when we saw each other. And I want to go home and be with my daughter. We are planning her sweet 16 and this weekend it will be just the two of us (and Mr Plastic Picker) but she is the light of my life. I love her brother too. But there is just something about having a sweet almost-16 year old daughter who still likes to hang out with me.
Wearing her state speech Tshirt! We bought three and a sweatshirt!
Thank you for following along my journey as Dr. Plastic Picker. I’ll be home soon. It’s a 55 minute flight to Tuscon so close. But it’s not home. And I know that my climate fight needs to mostly be at home.
The kick off for SB1137 happened yesterday. The two healthcare voices that showed up were me (Dr. Plastic Picker a pediatrician) and a premedical student that is still in high school. He’s shown up to multiple events, and if you show up – Dr. Plastic Picker hands you the opportunities. He’s already given a lecture at the medical school, helped establish the Student Electrification Initiative, and now going to push through a resolution in his city to support SB1137. It’s honestly whoever shows up, because this work needs to be done and it needs to be done now.
It was amazing all those that I saw again and met yesterday. It was a good sized group, about 50 community members, coalition members and youth advocates. My own two teens came, most notably my son who literally just landed back home for spring break from UC Berkeley. My daughter was there, woke up early for me to show up because her mother was speaking. Both of my children have done more than enough climate projects and understand fundamentally the importance of my advocacy, but I push them to do other things – because climate will become a large part of their lives later and for everyone. Now I want them both to grow and learn and have some privacy, from this intense world I’ve entered. But I saw one of my original mentors from Climate Reality! That was the first training I had done, and I had only met her virtually and I’ve been on the email list server for four years! It was really good to finally meet in person. I saw the members from SanDiego350.org and when a certain southbay justice person calls me or emails me, I show up. She texted me about this, and I made sure to show up. I saw Jack Shu! He’s an amazing climate advocate and has been for decades, and is now been joined by more Asian-American leaders like myself. He is amazing and his family is amazing. We’ve hung out and sang karaoke with all the UCSD premedical students!
And this morning, I’m just being a mom because yesterday – even though it was only a 5 minutes speech – I get so emotionally wrung out by it all. I was satisfied with how my comments landed. I was exhausted by the preparation, because I did have to review notes and prepare comments and do an updated premed search. I was energetic during the networking and happy to see everyone. But then afterwards because I’m fundamentally an introvert, I was exhausted and irritable and had to sleep. And then my daughter and I got into an argument, which is unusual for us. But I slept some more and she went running, and we realized it’s because of the nature of climate work and being connected. We laughed at dinner, so very much. We were happy and connected and together.
This morning, our son is upstairs with some high school friends who are all college freshman, and their laughing and chattering while watching some e-gaming finals. Mr. Plastic Picker and I drove over to the local bagel shop, and grabbed them some bagel sandwhiches and a carafe of coffee. That was new for us. They are college students, and I did not know that my son drinks coffee and so does his friends. But they are laughing and we give them space, but the house feels so full and wonderful with the young college students upstairs. Our 15 year old naturally wandered downstairs and making some whip cream for herself for no particular reason, and we’ll head out to the mall to buy a new set of earrings for her. I’m looking through the clear glass doors toward our beautiful backyard, and they are sitting and chatting and trying to fix our automatic gate. My mother sits in a very comfortable DME hospital grade bath chair, the ones that you see in the hospital when you are admitted. I absolutely have no idea how and where they got this chair, but they have one and now I realize why it’s important that we keep it. She looks so comfortable sitting in it.
And that is our life, with a hand-me-down luxury electric car in our garage that barely fits. We are so lucky in our lives. I am so lucky to be in the advocacy space that I’ve happened upon. And I am grateful for every day on this beautiful planet, to be connected with you to have my dreams for a livable planet and to still harbor silly dreams for my children’s future. The emotions are real, and the actions are impactful. Thank you for following along on my emotional journey. This work can get heavy, but this morning we saw rainbow and it seemed lighter because I put the earth at the center of all I do.
Good Saturday morning dear blog readers!!! I know I’ve neglected the blog readership quite a bit. I promise I’ve mostly been working (doing clinical care because I’m still a full time physician) and trying to address the climate crisis. I have to email a lot these days and actually text and Instagram message quite a bit these days, just to pull the disparate parts of our society together to collaborate on projects. I’ve ridden the waves of emotions from elation to annoyance to exhaustion, and thank you to those who actually know me for hearing me chatter on and on about climate and mostly chatter on about my teen daughter.
I think about leadership a lot. I sometimes wonder why I am in the place and space I am in. I get exhausted sometimes, but mostly I know I am at the right place and where I need to be. I think about the future still, even though I try to be present in most moments. I have written this before, but I will remind myself. The greatest gift climate work has given me, is that is has blessedly slowed down time. In the almost two years since I left middle management, I have been living in a slower time sequence. I have been able to enjoy my daughter being 15.
I’m sitting next to her right now. She’s in a virtual meeting with like-minded girls from Bangladesh and Central Asia, and doing an “Impact Challenge” as part of the Harvard Youth Leadership Summit. It was a virtual conference that I think was competitive that is run by the Harvard College Program for Asia and International Relations (HPAIR). It’s really interesting sitting next to her and watching how these four girls work together. They are so collaborative! Animated! Shared space! Inspiring! This definitely gives me hope and gives me goals on how to better work in groups as well.
Leadership. What does it mean? It mostly means showing up. I was reminding my daughter that the time you invest/spend on something is important. Showing up and committed to something. She was so committed to this conference. She was worried about being late for it virtually yesterday. She was eager to get up this morning to meet with her group. This is a completely optional conference, and I’m so grateful that it ended up being a useful activity for her. She’s learning. She’s connecting.
And this weekend? I’ll continue to lead and learn alongside her. Lots of climate projects in the works. We have the vegetable sticker project which is mostly on indigenous food systems and we have an invested new premedical student. SB1137 kick off and rally is next weekend, and I need to be ready to speak and advertise to our group. Still organizing PHAC OC/LA and recruiting new members for our council. H3SD 2024 planning is going really well. There was some internal change over of some positions, so I need to email a new person and cc an old person to make sure we have funding. In the end, our family can fund it but it’s a big chunk of change and we funded a bit portion last year (which we were happy to do since it needed to be done!). So lots of wonderful things this weekend, and meaningful projects.
I’m honestly mostly happy our teen is home. She was on a school trip to Argentina. I didn’t want to post too much about it because of the carbon emissions, but she went and it was the truth and it was worth it for our family. We try not to fly too much. We are driving up to her state speech tournament which is Fresno. And our son will be home next weekend and I’m going to give him a big hug.
Thank you for letting me type nonsense and detail my thoughts, as I try to be part of this existential fight to address decarbonization and global heating. Hope everyone has a sustainable weekend.
It’s interesting being at the intersection of generations. Mr. Plastic Picker and I had kids relatively early for those with graduates degrees. I had my two at 27 and 30, which is insanely early if you talk to most doctors. But that makes it interesting being a climate and health doctor now, because I’m at the peak of my professional career and influence with teenagers and thinking about their future. It’s so easy to be distracted by silly departmental politics or having FOMO regarding traveling to exotic locations, when literally the prospect of having grandchildren might elude me because fossil fuel companies continue to destroy this earth.
It’s true. I was with my daughter and celebrating her wonderful wins at the State Qualifying Tournament and she made finals in Impromptu and Original Prose and Poetry. Her accomplishments are remarkable and she’s in the mix to be part of that rarified world of kids at those schools who all know each other, and that can be influential. Especially as a former preemie baby, I don’t take anything about her life for granted.
But seeing her soar and win, begs the question – what about the rest of us? What about all of us in our 40s and 50s who went to those rarified Ivy League+ institutions with money and positions and power? What are we doing? We have already reached where these young high school speech kids are trying to reach, and what have we done with all that we have been given. I always remind my children that common adage, to those that are given much – much is to be expected. If I can guilt anyone of my generation to step up or ramp up their climate work, than that is actually the most impactful thing I can do. And I’ll be honest with the blog readership (and this is talking to the choir), I am vastly disappointed in a majority of physicians, pediatricians and adults out there. Obviously they don’t read this blog. But they listen to me speak. They see me parade myself around the blogsphere, and maybe even like an instagram post or two. But shame on you. I’ll be a big negative today, but absolutely shame on you. You can do more. You can absolutely do more.
When you have teens, you realize that despite the fancy dresses and despite the eloquent words – they are children. They are children organizing, and like Youth Vs. Oil – changing the conversation. And what have most physicians done? They’ve bought themselves a status Tesla and patted themselves on the back. That’s honestly what I think of most of the physicians out there.
But I have hope, because in reaching out to hundreds of colleagues, I’ve met a handful who get it. Who 100% get it. And we have big climate wins that I can’t fully announce yet. But I appreciate a certain ophthalmologist, a certain internist, a certain family practice physicians, and many many medical students and premedical students. When we are ready to announce some big climate wins on behalf of climate and health, I’ll announce it. I have to keep these two under wraps for a bit until they go through the proper channels.
Just wanted wanted the blog readership know that our teen did so well at her state qualifying speech tournament, and that Dr. Plastic Picker is still plugging away and organizing and recruiting. Thank you to all (mostly premedical students and medical students sadly) who have linked arms with me to do this vital work. And if I guilted you a bit, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. DM me, text me especially if you have an MD because there is so much for you to do, like I have a lobbying meeting coming up regarding wetlands and honestly it doesn’t have to be me. It could be YOU. I’ve been on the news and done enough public speaking that I’m 100% willing to share.
This is the true feelings of Dr. Plastic Picker. Who started off as a litter picking pediatrician. and now an eco-warrior!
