Israel Shows Inability to Tolerate Criticism

Israel shows inability to tolerate criticism

ANTHONY LERMAN: COMMENT | LONDON, ENGLAND - Sep 19 2009 06:00

The despicable attacks on human rights organisations investigating Israel’s Gaza offensive in January confirm Churchill’s observation: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

The mission led by Richard Goldstone, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), is the latest victim.

His investigation was dismissed before it had reported.

Goldstone could not defend it, so the smears and misrepresentation were left free to pollute public discourse.

The Goldstone mission was denied entry to Israel while the testimony of Gazans has been rubbished unless it supports Israel’s version of the offensive. Through such actions, as well as by allowing the army to investigate itself, Israel shows it cannot even tolerate reasonable criticism.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has assiduously responded to a deluge of scurrilous attacks on its credibility and staff, yet totally unfounded allegations — for example, about accepting Saudi government funding and failing to give a critical report to the Israel Defence Force before releasing it to the public — are constantly recycled.

HRW messed up by failing to see that the nerdy and, to most people, disturbing hobby of its weapons expert Marc Garlasco — he collects German and American World War 2 memorabilia — could be used to discredit his role as author of highly critical reports of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza. It finally suspended Garasco this week pending an investigation.

But when this story broke last week, the equation implied in some allegations — “Nazi” object-collector plus “Israel-basher” equals “anti-Semite” — was baseless and defamatory. That he also worked on reports critical of Hamas and Hezbollah was ignored. As another excuse to attack HRW, it was a gift.

The human rights world is not beyond reproach. UNHRC has hardly been impartial on Israel. Goldstone accepted his role only after the council president agreed to alter the mission’s mandate to cover all parties to the conflict. But this does not explain the extraordinary scale of the attacks on human rights organisations, including all Israeli ones.

The promoters of the concept of the “new anti-Semitism” — that Israel is the collective Jew persecuted by the international community — hold the international human rights movement largely responsible for it.

Unable to face the fact that occupation and increasingly extreme right-wing governments turned Israel into the neighbourhood bully, and misreading the fallout for Jewish communities as abandonment by progressive forces and governments, many Jewish leaders and opinion-formers have become the human rights movement’s fiercest critics. With anti-Semitism framing this attack, reasoned argument becomes nigh impossible.

By declaring the reports of human rights agencies biased, the attack dogs are reinforcing the damage Israel is doing to itself. They put Israel in the company of serial human rights abusers that make the same complaint.

Goldstone, meanwhile, has attracted extra venom from some who label him a traitorous Jew. Would they say the same about another Jew, Rene Cassin, one of the prime drafters of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Cassin was deeply influenced by the Holocaust and the universal declaration was drawn up in direct response to it. It contains the bedrock principles upon which today’s human rights agencies base their work. Goldstone is heir to Cassin’s legacy.

We owe it to Palestinian and Israeli alike to listen to Goldstone with open minds — he might just bring us closer to the truth of what happened to human dignity in Gaza in January this year.

Antony Lerman is a former director of the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-09-19-israel-shows-innability-to-tolerate-criticism

After a U.S. Air Strike; AMISOM Forces Pay

Friday, Sep. 18, 2009

After a U.S. Air Strike, Somali Peacekeepers Pay

By Nick Wadhams / Nairobi

One could argue that the U.S. was playing a dangerous game when it killed a suspected top al-Qaeda leader in a brazen daytime helicopter raid in Somalia earlier this week. While the Americans swoop in and carry out targeted strikes such as this, the African Union peacekeeping mission to the country (called the African Union Mission in Somalia, or AMISOM) remains stymied on the ground, undermanned and vulnerable, its troops bearing an unenviable and almost impossible task. In a country that has been in chaos for nearly 20 years, what peace can 5,000 Burundian and Ugandan soldiers possibly keep?

The Shabab, the hard-line Islamic militia that controls much of the capital, Mogadishu, and southern Somalia, promised swift revenge for the killing of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was wanted in the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-run hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. That retaliation came Thursday, Sept. 17 — and the AMISOM force was the target. Suicide bombers in two stolen U.N. trucks packed with explosives drove into the AMISOM compound in Mogadishu and blew themselves up. Seventeen soldiers, including the Ugandan deputy force commander, were killed. Four civilians also died.

“We have [gotten] our revenge for our brother Nabhan,” Shabab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said afterward, according to Reuters. “We knew the infidel government and A.U. troops planned to attack us after the holy month. This is a message to them.”

A message indeed. The attack was the deadliest against the peacekeepers since their operation in Somalia began two years ago. It follows a similar attack on Feb. 22 in which a suicide bomber posing as a contractor blew himself up at the same AMISOM base in Mogadishu, killing 11. The Somali government says the insurgents have also stolen at least eight U.N. vehicles in recent months. Six remain missing.

Coming so quickly on the heels of Nabhan’s death, Thursday’s bombing raises the question of whether American intervention in Somalia is undermining the Somali President’s ability to woo the moderate Islamists whose support he’ll need to restore peace in Somalia. The U.S. does not seem ready to abandon the country anytime soon. During her seven-nation tour of Africa in August, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Somali President Sheik Sharif Ahmed — a symbolically potent occasion, given that he had once opposed the U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops that invaded Somalia in 2006 to try to defeat the Islamists. The Americans will most likely continue to launch targeted strikes against suspected al-Qaeda militants and keep sending weapons to Ahmed’s transitional government, as the U.S. State Department confirmed it did in June.

“In retaliation, the insurgents will rain hellfire down on any representative of the international community [in Somalia], whether it is peacekeepers or humanitarian-aid organizations,” says John Prendergast, a Horn of Africa expert and head of the Washington-based Enough! Project, which works to end genocide. “The U.S. got their high-value target, but the price to Somalia and to those trying to stabilize it will be very high. It is a cost-benefit analysis that defies easy assessment.”

Meanwhile, the AMISOM peacekeepers will struggle on the ground, continuing to wait for the hardware and financial support they were promised. Soon after Thursday’s attack, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” and the U.N. Security Council did the same, reaffirming its support for AMISOM. But even if the peacekeepers sitting in Mogadishu ever get word of that support, they probably won’t think too highly of it. According to its mission statement, AMISOM is supposed to be preparing the way for the introduction of a U.N. peacekeeping force into the country. At the moment, AMISOM is not in position to do any such thing.

The AMISOM force is supposed to have 8,000 troops, but other African nations that pledged to send soldiers have so far not done so. It is a telling sign that the links on the AMISOM website for “activities” and “peace process” both lead nowhere. AMISOM officials have adopted a fatalistic tone but insist they will remain in Somalia.

As ineffective as the AMISOM force is, however, Somalia’s weak transitional government isn’t doing much better. The President is holed up in a villa in the capital, and the army has so far been incapable of mounting a serious offensive against the Shabab. The best thing to be said about the government is that it still exists.

“A lot of [Somalis] are against the Shabab, but it doesn’t seem the government is taking advantage of this by reaching out to clan elders and trying to drain the support from under their feet,” Nurudin Dirie, a Somalia analyst and onetime candidate for President of the breakaway Somali region of Puntland, tells TIME.

“I’m expecting this government not to make things worse,” he says. “I’m not under the illusion that this government, or the one after that, or even the one after that, will bring stability to Somalia.”

Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1924902,00.html

South Africa Atheletics Head Apologises Over Caster Semenya Controversy

Chuene apologises for lying about Semenya tests

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Sep 19 2009 11:54

Athletics South Africa (ASA) president Leonard Chuene admitted on Saturday that he refused to accept advice from ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Caster Semenya from the world athletics championships in Berlin last month.

Chuene also admitted that he had lied to the South African public about not having any knowledge of gender tests conducted on Semenya in Pretoria last month.

He added that ASA’s deception on the matter was intended to protect Semenya’s confidentiality.

“I now realise that it was an error of judgement and I would like to apologise unconditionally. As president of ASA I will not, however, apologise for allowing caster Semenya to run or for protecting her privacy.

“We fully agree that we could have handled this matter differently but something like this has never happened in this country before and we at ASA believe we acted in the best interests of the athlete,” he said.

But while Chuene was advised by Adams to withdraw Semenya, he said he refused to do so without any concrete evidence. He said that Adams’ verbal recommendation was not sufficient for him to make a decision on such a sensitive matter.

Chuene also said that Adams, who travelled with Semenya to Berlin, should have advised the athlete to withdraw herself from the championships.

The IAAF is still awaiting the results of gender tests conducted in Berlin but Chuene said he would not accept those results because the world governing body did not follow the correct protocol.

‘We do nothing …’
The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday about an exchange of emails between Adams and Chuene that made it clear that Chuene knew Semenya was gender-tested.

The email was sent by Adams to ASA general manager Molatelo Malehopo and copied to Chuene on August 5. The World Championships began on August 15.

It reads: “After thinking about the current confidential matter I would suggest that we make the following decisions. 1. We get a gynae opinion and take it to Berlin. 2. We do nothing and I will handle these issues if they come up in Berlin. Please think and get back to me ASAP.”

An emailed response from Malehopo to Adams, sent on the same day, reads: “I will suggest that you go ahead with the necessary tests that the IAAF might need.” - Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-09-19-chuene-apologises-for-lying-about-semenya-tests

Parliament meeting with ASA postponed

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA Sep 18 2009 16:25

The National Assembly’s sport committee has postponed its meeting with Athletics South Africa (ASA) scheduled for Tuesday.

This was because of the change in the parliamentary programme next week, Parliament’s communications service said in a statement on Friday.

The meeting would be rescheduled in the next parliamentary term, starting on October 6, it said.

ASA was expected to appear before the committee to explain its role in the Caster Semenya saga.

On Wednesday, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Donald Lee said he had written to committee chairperson Butana Komphela requesting that ASA appear before the committee to explain its role in the debacle that “has resulted in one of South Africa’s premier athletes having her privacy invaded and her constitutional right to dignity violated”.

“Today, after discussions with the chair, he has agreed to the DA’s request and, pending scheduling, will aim to call ASA before the committee in the next two weeks,” Lee said.

However, on Thursday Komphela denied that the committee would haul ASA before it to explain its role in the saga.

Komphela told the South African Press Association the decision to call or not to call ASA had to be a collective one made by the committee and not the chairperson on his own.

“Lee must present this matter to say he wants the parliamentary committee to call ASA or Leonard Chuene [ASA president]. From there, if the multiparty committee decides to call ASA then we will summon them.

“If the committee refuses, then we won’t call ASA … I don’t take decisions on my own, the parliamentary committee decides whether the matter is urgent or not,” Komphela said. — Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-09-18-parliament-meeting-with-asa-postponed

Intersex and the Law

SALLY GROSS: COMMENT - Sep 19 2009 06:00

Intersex has become the focus of public interest because of the media storm around the questioning of Caster Semenya’s sex. Our exemplary post-apartheid Constitution of 1996, with its Bill of Rights and Equality Clause, seemed at first glance to afford intersexed South Africans unassailable legal protection.

But my experience as an intersexed person showed me that this was not so. The law has been bolstered since then, but awareness of this fact is needed to afford protection to intersexed people in practice.

An intersexed person is one whose sexual characteristics from birth do not follow the typical paths of differentiation that we label “male” and “female”. This might involve ambiguity of the external genitalia, chromosomal pattern, internal reproductive structures, the gonads or the balance of hormones.

“Hermaphrodite” is probably a more familiar term than “intersexed”. With its Greek mythological connotations, however, it makes those like me sound like mythological creatures. We are real people: “intersex” describes us more adequately.

A United States study estimates that one in 500 people displays non-typical sexual differentiation that is so marked that it attracts medical — generally surgical — intervention. By common consent South Africa has possibly the highest prevalence in the world.

In 1997, as a direct result of medical evidence that I am intersexed, I ceased to be a human being in South African law despite the Bill of Rights. It took 15 months to achieve recognition of my humanity in law. So the effect of being intersexed on one’s civil and human rights is of deep interest and concern to me.

Before 2006, when an obscure judicial amendment — comprising two simple definitions — was signed into law, being found to be intersexed opened up all one’s rights to challenge. But the promulgation of the Judicial Matters Amendment Act of 2005 changed this technically.

Theoretically, this Act guaranteed protection to the intersexed. Two statutory definitions turned the technical trick. The trouble was that the amendment entered the statute book by stealth: its existence and far-reaching implications have evaded attention until now in a context in which the invisibility of the intersexed, bar a handful of notable exceptions, testifies to an entrenched culture of shame, secrecy and stigmatisation.

The amendment was drafted because an American case made it clear to me that the Equality Clause did not protect the intersexed. An American federal court found that the firing of a woman because she was born intersexed did not breach a Pennsylvania equality statute similar to our Equality Clause.

The statute forbade discrimination on grounds of sex. The court argued that “sex”, undefined in the statute, was to be understood in its ordinary dictionary sense. So it referred to the state of being “male and not female” or “female and not male”. The upshot: it didn’t protect the intersexed.

Our Equality Clause rules discrimination on certain listed grounds, including sex, unfair unless and until proved fair, but “sex” was not defined in statute. The dictionary definition of “sex” — male, female and nothing else — therefore governed its interpretation. “Human being” and “[natural] person” are also defined as having a sex in exclusively binary terms. The intersexed, somewhere in between, could thus be argued to be neither human beings nor natural persons.

The potential consequences were terrifying. Intersex was an “analogical ground” of discrimination rather than a listed ground in the Equality Clause. Unlike discrimination on a listed ground, discrimination on an analogical ground is deemed fair until proven unfair. The burden of proof rests on the victims.

In South African law, one needs locus standi, the right to address the court, to mount a legal challenge. Since the intersexed did not fit workaday definitions of “human beings” and “[natural] persons”, arguably they lacked the locus standi to challenge this or any other type of discrimination. It followed that the intersexed, because they were intersexed, had no secure rights — not even to dignity or to life itself.

The obvious remedy was to add “intersex” directly to the Equality Clause’s listed grounds. Seeking this, I was introduced to the ANC’s Fatima Chohan-Khota MP, a lawyer and a member (later chairperson) of the powerful justice and constitutional affairs portfolio committee.

It became clear that amendment of the Equality Clause wasn’t feasible. However, Chohan-Khota alerted me to the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, governing judicial interpretation of the Equality Clause.

Going through it, I realised that the trick could be turned surprisingly simply. The Act begins with a schedule of definitions. Adding two definitions — “’sex’ includes intersex” and “‘intersex’ means a congenital sexual differentiation which is atypical, to whatever degree” — would make intersex part of the meaning of “sex” in the Equality Clause.

I drafted the definitions and Chohan-Khota tabled them — but the process dragged on. Some years later, a chance encounter with Jody Kollapen, the chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), led to a workshop on the regulation of non-consensual genital surgery on intersexed children and consideration of the intersexed in scrutinising draft legislation. Crucially, the SAHRC supported insertion of the definitions into the equality Act.

And so, in January 2006, the definitions became law in the Judicial Matters Amendment Act, 2005. Their technical implications are substantial. People like me had not had an unimpugnable right — even to life — before. Now, by statute, we are bona fide human beings in South African law, protected from discrimination on the grounds that we are intersexed.

Sally Gross is the founder of Intersex South Africa. See http://www.intersex.org.za

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-09-19-intersex-and-the-law

Invention’s new imperative - James Dyson

It is a sad fact that major wars and national rivalries are good at spawning technological advances. The second world war brought us radar and V2 rockets, a technology that would contribute to NASA’s future success. The space race gave us freeze-dried food, scratch-free lenses and the digital processing behind MRI and CAT body scanners.
James Dyson is a design engineer and the man behind the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner
The 21st-century equivalent of these conflicts is here in the form of climate change. To avoid a rise in global temperatures of 4 °C and its well-communicated consequences, climatologists and politicians tell us that we need to reduce carbon emissions. Turning down the thermostat and switching off lights will not suffice. The solution lies with engineers and scientists.
Our homes are the source of 25 per cent of UK carbon emissions. We’re told to buy green and cut our energy consumption, yet our energy-labelling system is outdated and applies to only some appliances. The system is ripe for exploitation and products seem to make green claims on the flimsiest evidence. Token marketing gestures may sell products but they don’t solve the problem. We need to cut the amount of energy that machines waste and make them as effective as possible at what they do. We need to use design and engineering to get the most out of as little energy as possible.
At Dyson we’ve spent more than 10 years developing energy-efficient digital motor technology. Such advances take time: there are no quick and easy returns. And sometimes you need to step back and start again. The Dyson Airblade hand dryer is energy efficient because we changed the drying method entirely. Rather than waiting for hot air to evaporate water, we use a sheet of air to “scrape” hands dry in far less time.
The UK has the engineering and scientific expertise to become a leader in high-tech, low-carbon technology. But long-term commitment to this aim and serious investment are needed. If we don’t develop the intellectual property now, someone else will. China, a giant polluter, is also the biggest investor in renewable technologies. Green technology is a necessity and a challenge. It is also an opportunity. Let’s embrace it.
Bibliography
James Dyson is a design engineer and the man behind the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner

Former Labour Minister blasts Lisbon Treaty

In a similar vein to the last post, the Mail today picks up on comments made by Labour MP and former Minister Gisela Stuart at Open Europe’s Dublin meeting last week, at which she blasted the Lisbon Treaty because of its serious implications for democracy.

As a member of the European Convention which drafted the Treaty, Gisela really knows her stuff. Warning that “the nature of democracy is really at stake”, she said there would be “no more treaties, no more referendums anywhere” on EU integration.

She is also a key supporter of the Europe Says No campaign.

You can read her important comments in more detail here on our website.

Lib Dem party calls on its local councils to join 10:10 campaign

A motion calling on all Liberal Democrat councils to cut emissions 10% by 2010 will be put before the party’s annual conference next week
Felicity Carus
guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 September 2009 17.15 BST
The Liberal Democrat leadership plans to mandate all its local councils to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.
A motion proposing the carbon reductions will be put before the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth next week and, if passed, will be the first formal policy commitment by any political party in response to the 10:10 climate change campaign. Nationwide the Lib-Dems control 26 local authorities and hold 4,083 council seats.
The 10:10 campaign – which is supported by the Guardian – is an initiative launched this month to encourage people, businesses and organisations to reduce their carbon footprint by 10% by the end of next year. Nearly 18,000 people have joined the 10:10 campaign, including Gordon Brown and the cabinet as well as the Tory front bench and the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg. Over 700 businesses are also on board including Royal Mail and Tottenham Hotspur.
“The 10:10 campaign shows what can be achieved if the political will is there. Cutting emissions by 10% within 2010 is ambitious but realistic,” said Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem spokesman for energy and climate change.
The motion, which will be voted on by the conference on Tuesday, will also call on all party members to sign up personally including elected representatives in Westminster, Cardiff, Holyrood and Brussels. Hughes has already called on the speaker of the house, John Bercow, to sign parliament up to the campaign but the motion will go a stage further by calling on the government to make a national commitment to cut UK emissions by 10%.
If the motion is passed next week, 10:10’s organisers hope that Labour and the Tories will follow suit at their party conferences this autumn. The campaign manager, Daniel Vockins, said: “This lays down the gauntlet for the other political parties, and is a much higher target than local councils are currently committed to and hopefully lays the groundwork for deeper cuts … This is exactly the kind of ambition we need to see from all political parties now.”
Some Lib Dem led councils have already signed up to 10:10 including Camden, Cambridge, Eastleigh, Islington, Oldham, Richmond and Southwark. Sheffield and Bristol are also considering signing up. Alexis Rowel, a Camden councillor said the campaign is gaining real momentum among councils. “There is a big, inspiring effect going on here and also a grassroots push from residents. In the four years that I have been councillor, there has been nothing more significant than getting councils to sign up to 10:10.”
Around 25 out of 434 UK councils have already signed up, but as well as cutting their own emissions as organisations, the Hughes conference motion also targets businesses, organisations and residents within local authorities. “Effective action on climate change is also about individuals and communities,” he said.
What you can do
1. Help 10:10 reach its 20,000th sign-up by pledging your own cut at 1010uk.org. If you’ve signed up already, persuade a friend or relative (better still, lots of them) to join.
2. If you run a company, help 10:10 enlist its 1,000th business by signing up yours. If you work for a company write to your boss and ask them to join.
3. Help 10:10 spread its message more widely by offering financial support at 1010uk.org/donate

Mandelson’s car scheme offers first loan to Tata

The Government has finally provided support to a car maker under its £2.3bn Automotive Assistance Programme with a £10m loan to Tata Motors.

By Graham Ruddick Published: 7:50PM BST 18 Sep 2009
Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, unveiled the scheme in January, pledging to support the investment programmes of British-based manufacturers with loans and loan guarantees.
However, negotiations with companies have proved controversial, with Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by Tata, pulling out of talks and securing its own financing after the Government demanded a say in the business’s strategy.

Tata has now become the first company to secure a loan under the scheme, eight months after its launch. The £10m from the Government will support £25m of the Indian company’s own investment in plans to develop and manufacture Tata-branded electric cars in the UK.
The company is now “considering locations” in Britain to set up a factory, according to sources close to the talks. An announcement is expected soon. Along with the Tata Motors European Technical Centre at the University of Warwick, which already employs 180 people, the project could support hundreds of jobs.
Lord Mandelson said: “The Government is determined to help the car industry to exploit fully the opportunities offered by green manufacturing. Today we are backing Tata as Tata backs Britain.
“This loan will strengthen our electric vehicle manufacturing expertise, securing and creating high value engineering jobs in the West Midlands.”
A spokeswoman for the Business Secretary said the Government was in talks with 17 other companies about projects worth £2bn.
Tata said it “appreciates” the state support. The car maker, led by Ratan Tata, has developed a four-seater electric vehicle in partnership with Norwegian group Miljø Grenland/Innovasjon. Production of the vehicle should begin in Norway later this year.
The AAP is part of the Government’s support for the beleaguered car industry alongside the scrappage scheme, which offers consumers a £2,000 incentive to scrap an old car for a new model and has reinvigorated sales in the UK.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders yesterday wrote to Lord Mandelson to ask for the scheme to be extended to the original end-date of February 2010.
The scheme, which has been so successful that a 24.8pc annual decline in May new car sales was reversed into a 6pc rise in August, means that the £300m of Government funding, enough for 300,000 cars, could run out by October.
There are fears that the end of the scheme, combined with a return to the higher rate of VAT, will cause the market to slump again. Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive, said: “Avoiding a relapse in demand is critical to the UK economy.”

Contraceptives can reduce impact of climate change says Lancet

Greater use of contraceptives could help reduce the global impact of climate change, according to medical journal The Lancet.

Published: 7:00AM BST 18 Sep 2009

In an editorial, The Lancet said more than 200 million women worldwide wanted contraceptives but lacked access to them.
Addressing this unmet need could prevent 76 million unintended pregnancies each year, slow population growth, and reduce demographic pressure on the environment, it said.

The journal said: ”Countries in the developing world least responsible for the growing emissions are likely to experience the heaviest impact of climate change, with women bearing the greatest toll.
”In tandem with other factors, rapid population growth in these regions increases the scale of vulnerability to the consequences of climate change, for example, food and water scarcity, environmental degradation, and human displacement.”
The Lancet also criticised non-government organisations (NGOs) for ”working in silos” and avoiding the varied approach needed to change social attitudes.
A study soon to be published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that 37 of the least developed countries appreciated the link between population growth and climate change. However, only six of them identified family planning as part of their adaptation strategy. This was possibly because family planning fell under the remit of health rather than environment ministries, said The Lancet.
Only 7 per cent of 448 projects submitted by developing countries to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change involved the health sector.
The Lancet highlighted a successful programme in Ethiopia which trained people in sustainable land management at the same time as increasing the availability of family planning. It resulted in an immediate improvement to the environment with better agricultural practices.
”The sexual and reproductive health and rights community should challenge the global architecture of climate change, and its technology focus, and shift the discussion to a more human-based, rights-based adaptation approach,” said the editorial. ”Such a strategy would better serve the range of issues pivotal to improving the health of women worldwide.”
Earlier this month, research by the London School of Economics said contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies.
Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research said.

Tata electric car to hit UK roads as Mandelson lends £10m

Tata Motors-badged cars will hit the UK’s roads for the first time
Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 September 2009 16.19 BST
The government has finally dipped into its eight-month-old £2.3bn aid package for the car industry, lending Tata Motors £10m to assemble an electric car in the UK.
Tata Motors, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, will invest £25m into the project, which could create hundreds of jobs.
It will also see Tata Motors-badged cars on the UK’s roads for the first time.
The Indian company will announce shortly where the car will be assembled. Tata claimed the “Indica Vista EV [electric vehicle]” will be the world’s first mass-produced family-sized electric car and will be available in Europe by the end of the year.
It developed the four seater at its R&D centre in Warwick. Tata Motors is partnered with Norwegian company Miljø Grenland/Innovasjon which will make the electric batteries. Tata will use its Indica Vista’s chassis, which it will ship to the UK for assembly with the battery.
Initially assembly will take place in Norway until the UK site is ready, where the number of cars being produced will ramp up depending on sales.
Tata came close to scrapping its plans to build the car in the UK because of frustration over how long it had to wait to find out if the government would provide financial support. The company had to wait over eight months for a decision.
A spokewoman for Lord Mandelson’s business department said that it was difficult to find banks to underwrite the loan, even though many are in state control.
The Government unveiled the £2.3bn automotive assistance package in January in order to kickstart the ailing car industry and help companies develop low carbon technologies.

Oil barons needn’t fear the green machines

By Lee Wild
Date: Friday 18 Sep 2009
LONDON (ShareCast) - Oil bosses are furiously spending billions of dollars trying to find enough of the black stuff to help us maintain our love affair with the car. So, imagine the look on their faces this week when the world’s biggest auto makers wheeled out an army of electric concept cars at the Frankfurt motor show. ‘Damn them pesky greens’, you could hear them cry as Volkswagen claimed its L1 tandem two-seater diesel-electric hybrid concept car will nudge 200 miles-per-gallon. Other manufacturers also rushed to unveil their own fuel efficient, low emission vehicles they hope will lure environmentally conscious drivers to the showroom. But the oil barons really shouldn’t worry too much about the potential impact on their precious revenue, certainly not for the next decade or so. First of all, these super efficient cars that can get you from London to Manchester on a gallon of fuel aren’t in production yet. The 1.6-litre L1 won’t hit the road until 2013, while many experts doubt Nissan’s all-electric Leaf will do 367mpg and GM’s plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt will wring out 230mpg. Audi’s North American President Johan de Nysschen was definitely unimpressed. He reportedly called the Chevy Volt a ‘car for idiots’, later denied, and said potential buyers are part of an ‘intellectual elite who want to show what enlightened souls they are’. This new technology also doesn’t come cheap. VW haven’t put a price on the L1, but they’re unlikely to be giving away a car that boasts impressive carbon-fibre coachwork and television cameras instead of wing mirrors. Of course, there will be cheaper alternatives. Renault promises a big push on electric vehicles, planning production of four models by 2012 and promising to make at least 100,000 by 2016. Chief executive Carlos Ghosn told Frankfurt show-goers the range will ‘bring environmental soundness at a price everyone can afford’. But then there’s performance. The L1 will manage a top speed of just 99mph and labour from 0-62mph in over 14 seconds, while Renault’s jazzy Kangoo Be Bop Z.E. (Zero Emissions) will take about 15 seconds and do just 80mph. OK, so you don’t mind paying a bit more if it’ll save the planet, and you’re not a boy racer so aren’t going to be breaking the speed limit. But you’re not going to get very far. Electric cars generally run for between 40 and 120 miles before they need recharging, a process that can take as long as seven hours. VW’s strangely-named E.Up! might do 80 miles if it ever goes into production, good enough for the school run, but not much more. Governments have said they’ll pump millions of dollars and euros into making the electric car a viable alternative to petrol driven vehicles. But analysts at IHS Global Insight predict production of purely electric cars will jump to just 58,000 in 2011 from 9,500 this year. To put this in perspective, the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers said 52.6m passenger cars were made in 2008. Phil Gott, a director for automotive consulting at IHS Global Insight, told Sharecast the penetration of electric vehicles will depend on oil demand, although he believes the ramp up will be so slow that the oil industry will see little impact until after 2020. ‘Even a reasonably aggressive acceleration of electric vehicle sales will not have a significant impact on the energy mix until after 2020, or even 2025,’ he said. Gott admits the situation is uncertain post-2020 as we’ll be closer to the ‘doomsday forecasts’ concerning global warming. Urbanisation and congestion will also have increased, which could boost the market for electric vehicles. ‘A much bigger impact on the oil industry will come from bio fuels and other green fuels rather than electric vehicles until post 2030,’ Gott says, ‘unless something happens to make governments incentivise the take up of green vehicles.’