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On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle. The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragons blood treea species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is now struggling to survive intensifying threats from climate change. Seeing the trees die, its like losing one of your babies, said Keybani, whose family runs a nursery dedicated to preserving the species. Known for their mushroom-shaped canopies and the blood-red sap that courses through their wood, the trees once stood in great numbers. But increasingly severe cyclones, grazing by invasive goats, and persistent turmoil in Yemenwhich is one of the worlds poorest countries and beset by a decade-long civil warhave pushed the species, and the unique ecosystem it supports, toward collapse. Often compared to the Galapagos Islands, Socotra floats in splendid isolation some 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the Horn of Africa. Its biological richesincluding 825 plant species, of which more than a third exist nowhere else on Earthhave earned it UNESCO World Heritage status. Among them are bottle trees, whose swollen trunks jut from rock like sculptures, and frankincense, their gnarled limbs twisting skywards. But its the dragons blood tree that has long captured imaginations, its otherworldly form seeming to belong more to the pages of Dr. Seuss than to any terrestrial forest. The island receives about 5,000 tourists annually, many drawn by the surreal sight of the dragons blood forests. Visitors are required to hire local guides and stay in campsites run by Socotran families to ensure tourist dollars are distributed locally. If the trees were to disappear, the industry that sustains many islanders could vanish with them. With the income we receive from tourism, we live better than those on the mainland, said Mubarak Kopi, Socotras head of tourism. But the tree is more than a botanical curiosity: Its a pillar of Socotras ecosystem. The umbrella-like canopies capture fog and rain, which they channel into the soil below, allowing neighboring plants to thrive in the arid climate. When you lose the trees, you lose everythingthe soil, the water, the entire ecosystem, said Kay Van Damme, a Belgian conservation biologist who has worked on Socotra since 1999. Without intervention, scientists like Van Damme warn these trees could disappear within a few centuriesand with them many other species. Weve succeeded, as humans, to destroy huge amounts of nature on most of the worlds islands, he said. Socotra is a place where we can actually really do something. But if we dont, this one is on us. Increasingly intense cyclones uproot trees Across the rugged expanse of Socotras Firmihin plateau, the largest remaining dragons blood forest unfolds against the backdrop of jagged mountains. Thousands of wide canopies balance atop slender trunks. Socotra starlings dart among the dense crowns while Egyptian vultures bank against the relentless gusts. Below, goats weave through the rocky undergrowth. The frequency of severe cyclones has increased dramatically across the Arabian Sea in recent decades, according to a 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change, and Socotras dragons blood trees are paying the price. In 2015, a devastating one-two punch of cyclonesunprecedented in their intensitytore across the island. Centuries-old specimens, some over 500 years old, which had weathered countless previous storms, were uprooted by the thousands. The destruction continued in 2018 with yet another cyclone. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, so too will the intensity of the storms, warned Hiroyuki Murakami, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the studys lead author. Climate models all over the world robustly project more favorable conditions for tropical cyclones. Invasive goats endanger young trees But storms arent the only threat. Unlike pine or oak trees, which grow 60 to 90 centimeters (25 to 35 inches) per year, dragons blood trees creep along at just 2 to 3 centimeters (about 1 inch) annually. By the time they reach maturity, many have already succumbed to an insidious danger: goats. An invasive species on Socotra, free-roaming goats devour saplings before they have a chance to grow. Outside of hard-to-reach cliffs, the only place young dragons blood trees can survive is within protected nurseries. The majority of forests that have been surveyed are what we call over-maturethere are no young trees, there are no seedlings, said Alan Forrest, a biodiversity scientist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburghs Centre for Middle Eastern Plants. So youve got old trees coming down and dying, and theres not a lot of regeneration going on. Keybanis family’s nursery is one of several critical enclosures that keep out goats and allow saplings to grow undisturbed. Within those nurseries and enclosures, the reproduction and age structure of the vegetation is much better, Forrest said. And therefore, it will be more resilient to climate change. Conflict threatens conservation But such conservation efforts are complicated by Yemens stalemated civil war. As the Saudi Arabia-backed, internationally recognized government battles Houthi rebelsa Shiite group backed by Iranthe conflict has spilled beyond the countrys borders. Houthi attacks on Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea have drawn retaliation from Israeli and Western forces, further destabilizing the region. The Yemeni government has 99 problems right now, said Abdulrahman Al-Eryani, an advisor with Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based risk consulting firm. Policymakers are focused on stabilizing the country and ensuring essential services like electricity and water remain functional. Addressing climate issues would be a luxury. With little national support, conservation efforts are left largely up to Socotrans. But local resources are scarce, said Sami Mubarak, an ecotourism guide on the island. Mubarak gestures toward the Keybani family nursery’s slanting fence posts, strung together with flimsy wire. The enclosures only last a few years before the wind and rain break them down. Funding for sturdier nurseries with cement fence posts would go a long way, he said. Right now, there are only a few small environmental projectsits not enough, he said. We need the local authority and national government of Yemen to make conservation a priority. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Famly Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment Annika Hammerschlag, Associated Press
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Home Depot’s revenue climbed in the first quarter as customers spent slightly more as they tackled smaller projects.A number of U.S. companies have lowered or pulled financial guidance for investors as tariffs launched by the the Trump administration scramble world trade but on Tuesday, Home Depot stuck by earlier projections of sales growth at around 2.8%.Shares of the Atlanta company rose more than 3% before the opening bell on Tuesday.Revenue rose to $39.86 billion from $36.42 billion a year earlier, beating the $39.3 billion that analysts polled by FactSet expected.Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer’s health, edged down 0.3%. In the U.S., comparable store sales climbed 0.2%.Wall Street anticipated a 0.1% decline in same-store sales.Customer transactions rose 2.1% in the quarter. The amount shoppers spent climbed to $90.71 per average ticket from $90.68 in the prior-year period.“Our first quarter results were in line with our expectations as we saw continued customer engagement across smaller projects and in our spring events,” Home Depot Chair and CEO Ted Decker said in a statement on Tuesday.Home improvement retailers like Home Depot have been dealing with homeowners putting off bigger projects because of increased borrowing costs and lingering concerns about inflation.The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows.Sales of previously occupied homes dropped last month as elevated mortgage rates and rising prices discouraged home shoppers.Existing home sales fell 5.9% in March from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million units, the National Association of Realtors said. The March sales decline was the largest monthly drop since November 2022, when sales slid 6.7% from the previous month, and marks the slowest sales pace for the month of March going back to 2009.Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.“One of the central problems for Home Depot is the skittish housing market,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement. “While last quarter was robust, home sales declined by 3.1% year-over-year this quarter as consumers were deterred from moving by continued high interest rates and growing economic uncertainty. This lack of recovery makes it difficult to drive home improvement spending.”For the three months ended May 4, Home Depot Inc. earned $3.43 billion, or $3.45 per share. A year earlier the Atlanta-based company earned $3.6 billion, or $3.63 per share.Stripping out certain items, earnings were $3.56 per share. Wall Street was calling for earnings of $3.60 per share. Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
Many leaders are struggling right now with how to lead their teams to be productive with so much financial and regulatory uncertainty. Few would blame them. After three years of pouring their hearts and souls into developing vehicle safety technology, Jacobs team suddenly found itself wondering if it was all for nothing. Grants they had already received suddenly had new requirements that were challenging to meet, budgets theyd allocated were frozen by their parent organization fearing a coming recession, and costs for parts were rising so rapidly that profits on existing deals were evaporating. In short, everyone on Jacobs team had reason to worry each time one of these changes came. They also understood that more major changes could be comingand without much notice. These employees knew that it was possible that their projects or current roles might not even continue. Every team member showed signs of being distracted and worried. Jacob recognized that if they took their eye off the ball, they could be even worse off. Work still needed to get donefailing to do so could harm their careers (and the health of the company). Jacob was in a bind: he needed to keep the team productive. But he knew that any project he asked them to focus on could be cut, and any efforts could turn out to be wasted time. He couldnt look into a crystal ball and know his guidance would be right. In my work training and coaching leaders in Fortune 500 organizations and beyond, regardless of the industry, Ive seen leaders often take the wrong steps in highly uncertain timesand end up demotivating the team. What doesnt work is: Optimism Great arguments Big picture vision and purpose Theres a time for those approaches, but leaning on them at the wrong time makes the leader seem out of touch. Imagine a house sitting on a fault line: then comes an earthquake. After the shaking stops, the house is still standingbut the foundation has visible cracks, and the ground beneath has clearly shifted. Would you trust someone who charged in optimistically and with a cheery tone told you the house will be just fine and to head back in? Or would you trust someone who acknowledges that there could be aftershocks, and who agrees that it makes sense to test the structure of the house before going back? Most people would trust the second person more. Theyve acknowledged your reality. They stand a chance of finding out if the house is safe, and if not, what steps are needed to make it so. In highly uncertain times at work, there are psychological earthquakes and aftershocks coming regularly. Each time, no matter how much trust you had built up in the past, because reality has shifted, you need to show you understand the new reality to gain trust again. Motivating teams through tough times Ive also seen leaders get people to perform in tough times. They start by meeting the people on the team where they are mentally and emotionally before trying to coach them. Theyll acknowledge that its stressfuland perhaps even heartbreakingto give so much to your work and then learn it could end up in the trash. Its distracting to believe that your job, or at least your current project or function, might become obsolete. Its natural to wonder whether youll still be valued in the same way. Those leaders ask questions to ensure they really hear the concerns, perspectives, beliefs, and feelings of people on the team. Thats what Jacob did with his team, too, to help them perform and keep adapting as needed. Im here, and I hear you Heres why it matters to do so. When people cant control a situation, they care deeply about whether they can trust the process by which their future will be determined. Research has shown that even when the outcome is outside their control (whether it be a performance review or budget upheaval), if people felt the process was fair, theyre more able to set the past aside and do what needs to be done. A major part of believing they can trust the process is whether they feel the leaders or authorities have heard and seen them. They want to know if the leaders understand their reality. They want to know the leaders get it. Then the process seems more fair. Neuroscience has found that peoples perception of fairness changes when they focus on a process versus an outcomesay, how leadership took a listening tour before making project cuts, rather than the outcome of the cuts themselves. Theres a big difference in how the brain reacts when we evaluate between the two. When we focus on an outcome seeming fair, we primarily use the areas of the brain that correspond to emotions. But when we focus on the process, we use the regions of the brain that relate to social cognition. That means people are thinking about other people involvedand good leaders meet them there. Psychological research has also tested the importance of making people feel heard specifically in times of great uncertainty. In the pandemic, leaders were better able to get emergency personnel to embrace new ways of operating when they took this step. Feeling heard and seen leads people to be ready to accept hardships and move forward. Unconsciously, at least, the team members are trying to answer the questions can I trust the process? and can I trust this person? Zooming out After you meet your employees where they are emotionally by letting them know you hear and see them, your team can begin to trust you and your process more. At that point, it can be very helpful to show your optimism, or give your great arguments, or remind them of the big-picture vision. What leaders need to remember is that in times of great uncertainty, we need to earn the right to lead, coach, and influence every time the ground shifts. Some months that means we need to do it in every conversation or meeting we have with our team members. Let them know you get it. Then they will be more likely to let you lead them in whatever ways you need to. In uncertain times, people are understandably worried, so leaders need to demonstrate each time anew.
Category:
E-Commerce
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