November 2, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Are you stressed out about COP26? I am a little bit. Watching the news and the bumblings and the Russian/China No-Shows. Watching the posturing. The mainstream media doesn’t help as well because gloom and doom always generates more clicks than hope.

But anyone who has ever been on any kind of committee knows that the leaders, they don’t do much. Most leaders anyway. They just posture and take credit for what the worker-bees accomplish. The true work is done by the creatives and those that have passion, and the people – the people is where the answer is. I’ve sat on many committees and indeed, I’ve lead many committees, and I know this to be true in my heart. So am I upset about COP26? Yes. But I also know the answer. The answer is that the people and the masses need to be inspired by eachother. We need more Boyan Slats from the Ocean Clean Up. We need more Greta Thunbergs. And we need more climate and health advocates/activists. The leaders will follow along once we’ve convinced more people, and honestly half of the world still needs convincing. No one said this was going to be easy.

So I am doubling down on local efforts and enacting change locally. This is where I can make changes, and looking back at the last two years – I am in awe at what we’ve been able to accomplish here. I am someone who likes to take action, but I realize the biggest way for me to help is to continue to talk about this work. As we are moving the needle on various projects and pair it with advocacy talks, for some reason it resonates. I’ll be interviewed by NIH this afternoon. We are preparing for an HMO wide walk on climate and health. We are giving a county LiveWell seminar on Climate and Health. I’m considering leading a breakout session and presenting our avGas project at Pediatric Academic Societies, in order to talk climate and health. The talking paired with the doing, that is what I’m meant to do right now.

Just here on the blog this morning, sorting through some climate emotions. The bananas above are from my friend Dr. Joe. He has banana trees in his backyard, and I pick up his coffee grounds for my compost. We kind of do this back and forth trading of things because he lives right next to my mom. It keeps me connected with him, and that sense of connection is what we need to #fightfor1point5.

I’m at bag, I think 575 abouts. I’ve given out over 500 reusable bags with the Dr. Plastic Picker logo on it that hopefully is decreasing plastic bag use. Those bags were really pretty. I may reorder some. I’ve banded together a motley crew of 40 pediatricians and premed interns in San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air, and we are lifting pediatric voices here locally. We have three pediatricians serving as public health members of different Air Pollution Boards. We are getting some headway on pushing our mayor to offer unleaded aviation fuel at Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport. Well at least it sounds like some policy people are listening and city councilmembers are listening. The Youth Arts Project is getting to it’s completion and the art work from the children is absolutely amazing. We will print a collection of 10-25 of the entries, and have a traveling exhibit of the works in different offices in San Diego. And my mentor and former senior resident Dr. Young-Ho Yoon nominated me for an alumni award for my advocacy work. I’ve since somewhat given up on Harvard and having an influence over there and I think it’s unlikely that I will receive that award. The award is another opportunity to talk climate, but having him nominate me – his former intern – means the world to me. It means he noticed and he cares. He’s taught me so much. He told me to buy the Aerobin400 and the composter has been such a great metaphor for life. He inspired me to make my own pizza dough. I really should nominate him.

But he knows, and you dear readers know how much I appreciate you. I had colonic spasm yesterday and almost went to the Emergency Room. I’m 100% lactose intolerant now, and I made th mistake of eating sour cream. Lets just say it was a difficult 24 hours. But I’m back after resting and taking care of myself. I had no qualms calling in sick yesterday, as I rarely do and I was sick. I hydrating myself and napped. Dairy is my kryponite. But given there are so many plant-based alternatives and I am changing to mostly plant-based anyway, I just have to be more careful. Dairy is my kryptonite. That’s a cool turn on phrase!

Signing off to do more climate talk talk talk, and going to contact the California EPA about lead data. If you are the mayors office or city councilperson’s policy people sneaking around my blog, all I have to say is that I gave you guys fair warning that your constituents are not going to be happy that you led leaded avGAS continue to rain down on their children. I’m just doing my job. You should do your job. And yes I posted your job on the World Health Organization website. Yes I did.

Signing off, Dr. Plastic Picker – your local litter picking pediatrician who is also trying to clean the sky of lead from the Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport. They would never do that to La Jolla. Which is why I know these La Jolla bananas are Lead-Free. Sad but true. It’s an environmental justice issue folks.