Fragile

Nigerian stocks inched up 0.2 per cent on Tuesday, the market’s first advance since Wednesday, but that does not seem a sure-footed rebound as the number of decliners more than doubled that of gainers. Turnover shrank by 25 per cent and transaction volume by 3 per cent, leaving the benchmark index to hinge on gains by two megacap stocks – BUA Cement and Zenith Bank – for the climb. After the bell, lender GTCO issued a statement saying it got its approval for release of its half-year result and has sought a…

Even though energy-hungry Bitcoin mining companies have volunteered to power down in Texas this week to alleviate the stress placed on the grid by a searing heatwave, the industry could still trigger more problems down the line if it continues its explosive expansion in the state. Higher electricity bills and even more carbon dioxide emissions could be on the way for Texans, despite crypto mining industry claims that it can spur the growth of affordable renewable energy. The problem is the Bitcoin network’s enormous…

In the early days of Covid, when lockdowns held tight, even the loudest cities fell into silence. With all that clamor cleared away, other sounds filled the air. For New York City native Randall Poster, the most enchanting of them came from the hawks, cuckoos and warblers that could finally be heard above the din. “Amid the quiet, I became more aware of all the birdsong around us,” Poster told the Guardian. “Also, during a time when so much was unknown and dark, looking out the window and watching nature’s creatures…

Then there was a 2018 study that analyzed data from more than 500 publications and estimated that biocrusts “will decrease by about 25–40 percent within 65 years, due to anthropogenically caused climate change and land-use intensification.”Finger-Higgens’s “paper offers a little more realism” than these experimental studies, says Bowker. It shows “something that unfolded over an extended period of time in a natural ecosystem.”So is stripping the desert of its crusty skin really a big deal? If you have spent time in the…