Alex Begg

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

@greenspaceops It's certainly a 'see where you've been' job. Pass on thanks to the crews!

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

@greenspaceops Good strong work!

[The London Economic @LondonEconomic]

"If you're in a union, you can bargain, not beg, and that's the important difference."

Mick Lynch perfectly explains why you should join a union 👇

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

The irony regarding a political party who reduce the quality of life of their electorate, to encourage their votes, is not lost on me.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

In all honesty, can someone explain in the world of ecomonics/accounting, why I'm not just about to directly pay water company shareholders...?

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

2020: England's privatised water firms paid £57bn in dividends since 1991. https://t.co/st7QZbp6vb

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

That seems funny, as that's about the amount the joint water companies want to spend on infrastructure improvements until 2030, and raise, on aggregate, each of our bills by £150/year for the pleasure.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

It's not unusual that I talk to people about trees.
In my day job, I'm throughly seeking every tree metric and valuation I can get my hands on, whilst outside of this, I'm often talking about their unmeasurable beauty.

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

12 Reasons Why Cities Need More Trees:

1. Temperature Control

One large tree is equivalent to 10 air conditioning units, and the shade they provide can reduce street temperature by more than 30%.

2. Noise Reduction

Trees can reduce loudness by up to 50%. In urban areas filled with the sound of cars, construction, sirens, aeroplanes, and music, trees are essentially the best way to block noise and keep cities — along with the homes and workplaces in them — quieter.

3. Air Purity

Trees remove an astonishing amount of harmful pollutants and toxins from the air. In urban areas air quality is often disastrously bad — with severe consequences for our health. Trees make the air we breathe much cleaner.

4. Oxygen

And, while absorbing all those pollutants, trees also put more oxygen back into the urban environment. Oxygen levels are significantly lower in cities compared to the countryside; trees help to solve that problem.

5. Water Management

Trees do more than just shelter us and our buildings from rain — which is, in fact, extremely important. They also absorb huge quantities of water, reduce run-off, neutralise the severity of flooding, and make flooding more unlikely altogether. Not to forget that their roots absorb pollutants and prevent them from feeding back into a city's water supply.

6. Psychological Health

Studies have proven what we instinctively know to be true: that human beings are significantly happier when surrounded by nature rather than sterile urban environments. Our emotions, behaviour, and thoughts are shaped by the places we spend time — and trees have a profoundly positive effect on our psychology. The consequential benefits of being happier and more peaceful — as individuals and as a society — are immense.

7. Physical Health

Beyond all the other ways in which trees improve air quality and the urban environment, much to the benefit of our health, they also encourage people to go outside. Cycling, running, and walking are all more common in urban areas with plenty of trees. A knock-on effect of people spending more time outdoors is also social integration and stronger communities.

8. Privacy

A simple point, but not inconsequential, is that trees provide privacy.

9. Economics

The total economic benefit of urban trees is hard to calculate. There are costs, of course, including the repair of infrastructure damaged by roots and maintaining the trees themselves. But the total economic benefit — a consequence of everything else in this list and more — far outweighs the expenditure. Trees make cities wealthier.

10. Wildlife

Trees are miniature cities all of their own, serving as a habitat for hundreds of different species, including birds and mammals and insects.

11. Light Pollution

Trees don't only block the light shining down, therefore keeping us and our cities cooler — they also disrupt light shining up, from street lighting, cars, houses, and billboards. Skies are clearer in cities with more trees.

12. Aesthetics

And, finally, trees are beautiful. They break up the potential monotony of urban environments — the sharp geometry, the greyscale roads and buildings, the endless rows of cars — with their trunks, boughs, canopies, and flowers.

Just think: the gold and red of falling leaves in autumn, the white and pink blossom of spring, the vast green canopies of summer, and the branches lined with hoar-frost in winter. Every single tree is a myriad of intricacy and texture, of colour and scent, of dappled light on the pavement, mottled bark, knotted roots, of clustered leaves and delicate petals and stern boughs.

Few streets would not be improved by the kaleidoscopic aesthetic delights of a tree, not to mention the many different species of tree, all over the world, whether willow, oak, lime, cherry, aspen, maple, birch, horse chestnut, dogwood, hornbeam, ash, sycamore... the list goes on.

There are some drawbacks to urban trees, most of them context-specific, and they are not — of course — universally appropriate. But it seems fair to say that many cities would benefit from at least a few more trees here and there.

[Graham Harvey @supercarbon]

The only carbon capture that works. Nature’s own Earth cooling mechanism. But UK and US governments can be relied on to give cash to business corporations for untried technologies rather than to farmers with a technology proven over 700 million years

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

tesco advertising hits new low.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

@GreenspaceNorth @NottinghamParks @IamChidstar @RealmPublic I'm loving your new Parks focus. Looking great and good spring clean, thanks Parks Team North.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

It's a revelation! I never knew how good it felt to block absolute dingbats who feel the polar opposite to me. Its not tolerance, but is highly cathartic.
Check out some of the replies to this tweet...

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

Even Vine is focused on the salient crux.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

@RealmPublic @corecities @parks_forum Nothing like a little rain to keep things green and clean.

[John O’Brennan @JohnOBrennan2]

Waldorf and Statler capture the feeling of the week that was.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

An example of the cost of trees and compared to construction.
And what's the first thing to be value engineered in most projects, green blue infrastructure.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

Every night, more joy!

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

@HeemskerkJohan @Petraderhund @hortweek Unfortunately sometimes the stick is more effective than the carrot at achieving necessary change.
It's amazing what the market will provide when regulation has had its effect.

[Alex Begg @AlexBeggEsq]

Well that's that then.

Do workers feel thankful for having jobs?

If only 1 in 10 my union's members thinks we're due a pay rise (to much less than the aggregate inflation rate since 2009), what do the other 8.5 think? Should we ballot for a pay cut, as that's what we've had?