The number of refugees fleeing to other countries to escape conflict and persecution rose in 2007 for the second year as factors from climate change to over scarce resources threatened to increase the flow, the United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday. A total of 11.4 million refugees were under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2007, including some 400,000 feeling conflict in their home countries, the agency said. The report for 2006 numbered 9.9 million.

It would be a sad census in any case, but the tally of trees lost in Central Park to high winds during the storm on June 10 comes with particular ill grace in the middle of the Million Trees NYC campaign. Skip to next paragraph Leave a Comment on City Room "You felt it was like a tornado,' said Douglas Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy and the administrator of Central Park. According to the conservancy's survey, 33 trees were significantly damaged, 24 of which have already been removed.

The number of refugees crossing borders to escape conflict and persecution increased last year, and threatens to continue to grow because of factors like climate change and scarce resources, the United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees oversaw the care of 11.4 million refugees in 2007, including about 400,000 people who were enduring conflict in their own countries, the agency said. The total was 9.9 million people in 2006.

Are environmentalists doing themselves

Another Failure on Climate Change,' the June 11 editorial about the recent Senate debate on global warming legislation, was off the mark. Questioning the scheduling of the debate because of high gas prices makes little sense. If gas prices don't go down, should we never address global warming? Of course not. Many Republicans used gas prices as a reason not to act, even though the long-term solution to gas prices lies in the new green technologies that will come to the fore once we do act.

It looks like an ordinary family sedan, costs more to build than a Ferrari and may have just moved the world one step closer to a future free of petroleum. The FCX Clarity on a test drive after an introduction ceremony in Japan on Monday. On Monday, Honda Motor celebrated the start of production of its FCX Clarity, the world's first hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicle intended for mass production. In a ceremony at a factory an hour north of Tokyo, the first assembly-line FCX Clarity rolled out to the applause of hundreds of Honda employees wearing white jump suits.

The nation's 6,000 football field-sized computer data centers have been recognized as remarkably wasteful power hogs, and the industry is mobilizing people and investment to address the problem

Iran said on Tuesday it would continue enriching uranium, defying efforts by major powers to pressure Tehran into stopping such work. The EU's top diplomat on Saturday presented Tehran with a package of economic benefits to try and persuade it to stop its nuclear program, which the West fears could lead to a nuclear weapon. "We have repeatedly said that enrichment is our red line and we should enjoy this technology. The work will be continued," deputy foreign minister Alireza Sheikhattar told reporters, according to the state news agency IRNA.

-- Honda's new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off a Japanese production line Monday and is headed to Southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring. The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the noxious fumes believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.

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