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Tree Guy Alexander

@treeguyalexander.bsky.social
78 followers 94 following 86 posts

Environmental researcher and writer. I'm interested in resilient communities and ecosystems, collaboration between organizations, and trees. 📍Currently WY, originally MD, most recently CA

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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Davey Alba @davey.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
NEW: Spoke to 25 small publishers about the kind of impact Google's AI changes to search has had on their businesses. Things don't look good—not for the publishers, and not for the quality of information out on the open web, which ironically Google itself relies on. Gift link: bloom.bg/43Jmzk3
In March 2024, website owner Morgan McBride was posing for photos in her half-renovated kitchen for a Google ad celebrating the ways the search giant had helped her family’s business grow.

But by the time the ad ran about a month later, traffic from Google had fallen more than 70%, McBride said. Charleston Crafted, which features guides on do-it-yourself home improvement projects, had weathered algorithm changes and updates in the past; this time, it didn’t recover. McBride suspected people were getting more of their renovation advice from the artificial intelligence answers at the top of Google search.

The now-ubiquitous AI-generated answers — and the way Google has changed its search algorithm to support them — have caused traffic to independent websites to plummet, according to Bloomberg interviews with 25 publishers and people who work with them. That’s disrupting a delicate symbiotic relationship that’s existed for years: if businesses create good content, Google sends them traffic.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 07/04/2025
Trump's environmental actions will significantly increase the cost of living for millions of people and bring about hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
latimes.com
Trump is cutting the nation's environmental programs. Here are the health risks to Americans
The president's environmental actions will significantly increase the cost of living for millions of people and bring about hundreds of thousands of premature deaths.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Me, after taking a huge pay cut to leave the tech industry in part because I saw the imminent replacement of my work by AI, & whose team was liquidated 5 months later: Hey, maybe we should be thoughtful about how we use this tech Everyone in the enviro school at an R1 university: *la la la la la*
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
And yet nobody in my department wants to think about the ethical problems with AI, like how it only serves to help entrepreneurial and mgmt types save money by replacing people
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
This weekend I got in my last x-country ski of the season (I'm a newb). The lodgepole pines were sparkling like fake Christmas trees. It's normally so windy here on the High Plains that we don't get this effect, but the mountains above town decided that winter was going out in style! #treesky
A snowy path through pine trees. The trees are covered in a dusting of snow and sunlight shines through the branches.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Yup. It turns out "people buy a ticket for $10 to see a movie one time" is one of the GOAT business models unless you intentionally kill it bsky.app/profile/rntr...
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Happy #caturday! Raise your paw if you love helping with laundry.
A single cat paw sticks out of a pile of towels, exposing its adorable little toe beans
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Lol I was told to use an AI transcription service for an interview with an indigenous leader. At one point she talks about a sense of entitlement in a community she's had trouble working with. The AI summary: "a sense of entitlement among indigenous people," literally the opposite 🤦
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Am I practicing my French again in case I have to apply for jobs in Canada, France, Switzerland, etc? Sure am!
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
this shit sucks so much, most of us have lived through at least 3 other recessions now im just so sick of this shit they just keep stealing our future from us
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Jenni @jennismovingcastle.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Millennials be like,
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
File me under "despairing," and I feel so energized and motivated and full of love because of what @booker.senate.gov is doing
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
I saw @booker.senate.gov speak in 2008 when he was mayor of Newark. He spoke with so much energy and passion then. He was speaking with that same energy when I went to bed last night and he was still going when I woke up. Absolutely inspiring.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
FLAVOR FLAV ⏰ @flavorflav.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Cory Booker
media.tenor.com
a pink bunny wearing sunglasses is holding a drum with the words `` still going '' written on it .
Alt: a pink bunny wearing sunglasses is holding a drum with the words `` still going '' written on it .
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
(I know it's March 31 but tomorrow it will still be winter here on the High Plains.)
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I'm not used to winter continuing into April, but it does make for some pretty excellent sunrise runs.
Sunrise glints through the leafless branches of three or four trees growing in the distance. In the foreground, a dusting of snow covers a grassy field. A fence separates the field from a small river.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Plus I'm a little grumpy that opening an article in Proquest means I'm (non-consensually) making a query to an AI tool, with all the ethical and environmental issues that entails
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Is there a way to turn off the AI summaries in Proquest? I dive into articles to read and learn and identify takeaways for my own work, not to have a machine tell me what it thinks I should learn #highered #research #researchsky
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Sweet Caroline. It is not SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
One of the many sad things about leaving Southern California is that I left Toomgis. I hope they forgive me.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Happy #caturday to this guy, who is very good at helping with my least favorite chore (putting away laundry) and also is my ray of sunshine in dark times
A gray tabby cat snoozes on a pile of laundry.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I was SO excited for this, because @amberruffin.bsky.social is one of the funniest people alive
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 29/03/2025
One hell of an opening for this @tressiemcphd.bsky.social piece www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/o...
Tressie McMillan Cottom
By Tressie McMillan Cottom

Opinion Columnist

Behold the decade of mid tech!

That is what I want to say every time someone asks me, “What about A.I.?” with the breathless anticipation of a boy who thinks this is the summer he finally gets to touch a boob. I’m far from a Luddite. It is precisely because I use new technology that I know mid when I see it.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Le Monde @lemonde.fr · 29/03/2025
Politique antidiversité de Donald Trump : Paris dénonce des « ingérences inacceptables » américaines visant des entreprises françaises
lemonde.fr
Politique antidiversité de Donald Trump : Paris dénonce des « ingérences inacceptables » américaines visant des entreprises françaises
Un courrier de l’ambassade des Etats-Unis demande aux sociétés françaises de prouver qu’elles ne mettent pas en œuvre de programmes de promotion de la diversité, de l’équité, et de l’inclusion qui enfreignent les lois fédérales, sous peine de ne pas pouvoir travailler avec le gouvernement américain.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
It would also explain his well-documented disdain for the French Revolution bsky.app/profile/tree...
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
My cat is from Louisiana, which does seem like an appropriate place for a time-traveling French cat to go.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
A friend visited the National Gallery of Art in DC and pointed out that my cat might be a time traveler from 19th century France
A photograph of the painting "A Woman With a Cat" by Renoir. In the painting, a young woman holds a gray cat, though the cat does not look particularly happy about it
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I've never heard of a "Flying Dutchman" either. Is that just a double-double? Am I showing my age calling it that or is it something different??
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
My favorite hidden gem in LA is the Autry Museum of the American West. Lots of really insightful and inspiring exhibits that examine what "the West" means and to whom
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
jae holzman @jael.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
i profiled the first major american environmental disaster of the trump era i would appreciate it if you shared, as the communities impacted feel deeply ignored by the mainstream media
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
The Parker Out Of Space @tonyparkerart.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Seriously. Don't post "AI images of me in the style of ____". AI is theft. AI is also trying to steal artist's jobs. It is a horrible look.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
What people in every part of higher education need to understand is that Republicans now want to do to universities what they’ve tried to do to labor unions: erase them from the institutional landscape. The question is how much you want to collaborate in your own destruction.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Rick CarBOOso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
What’s most confusing and sad about the AI hype to me is every person who supports it doesn’t seem to understand that there are people who find great satisfaction in doing things - creating, serving others, solving puzzles. It’s wild to realize the tech class is, at heart, lazy and incurious.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
I still think about this post by @jksteinberger.bsky.social almost everyday. bsky.app/profile/jkst...
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
I suspect there's going to be a growing divide between people who learned a skill (eg coding) and people who used AI to avoid having to learn the skill.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Meanwhile I have major ethical and enviro concerns about AI and I've yet to hear of a use case valuable enough to offset those concerns. What's most surprising is how many faculty members tell students to just use it, without any thoughtful discourse.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
I got a bad review today for being unwilling to use AI on a project. Nobody can point to any work I did that would have been improved by using AI.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
One of the biggest surprises about moving from the West Coast tech industry to a university in a deep-red state is that I face way more pressure to use AI here than ever before.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
As a member of the Editing Lobby, unfortunately I can confirm this is true
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
The three in that photo are on state park land in Arizona. I need BLM land specifically.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
I'm v surprised to learn it's a little hard to find info on where wild burros (ie feral donkeys) are on BLM land. Lots of info on horses, but where my burros at?? I need this for a research project I'm starting on, and didn't expect to have to put much effort into this part of it.
Three donkeys stand in a field with sparse, shrubby vegetation.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
🚨NEW: climate inaction will cost more than a third of global GDP this century, but an investment of less than 2% GDP now will reduce harms by 90% - a "massive opportunity for humanity", finds a report from Boston Consulting Group and University of Cambridge.
forbes.com
Climate Inaction Could Cost 1/3 Of Global GDP This Century, BCG Warns
The Big 3 consulting firm finds that most harms come from productivity losses, but also reveals how nations could avoid 90% of climate damage.
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 12/03/2025
"forced discrimination programs" = EPA programs that made it slightly more difficult for industry to turn Black neighborhoods like Pleasantville in Houston or Africatown in Mississippi into cancer havens polluted with unregulated toxic waste
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
The tattoo of P-22 on my right arm tingles when I see things like this
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
Sort of a non sequitur, but this keeps popping into my head while working on a research proposal: I don't agree with them in pretty much any way, but I have to say that "sagebrush rebel" is some badass branding.
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Reposted by Tree Guy Alexander
Zeke Lunder - The Lookout @wildland-zko.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
If you are in the wildfire mitigation business in SoCal, we are currently taking on advertisers for a SoCal Fire Geek Roadtrip series (starring Tim Chavez!), to be filmed in May. Please reach out to me via email links at the-lookout.org.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
We really need to work towards forests that are more resilient to egg noodles
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Saw this cartoon while my cat grooms me after I went on a nice run around the reclaimed Superfund site in my little town. I'm smiling ear to ear.
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Tree Guy Alexander @treeguyalexander.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Happy #caturday from this ferocious beast and the cuts on my hand that make people ask, "Do you garden without gloves or do you own a cat?"
A grey tabby cat gnaws on a human hand.
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