Ex-Indian army officer shares picture from movie set as 'truth' about Pakistan Army's presence in Panjshir

Former Indian major general believes picture showing Pakistani actors Shaan Shahid and Umair Jaswal is of soldiers in Afghanistan.

Dawn.com

A retired Indian army officer became the butt of a joke on Twitter after he mistook a photo from a Pakistani military-themed film as showing Pakistani soldiers who he falsely claimed were martyred in Afghanistan's Panjshir valley.

The apparent confusion started after another former Indian army officer, Maj Gen GD Bakshi, posted a tweet claiming that the Pakistan Army had "suffered very heavy casualties" in Panjshir, where the Taliban and resistance fighters engaged in heavy fighting earlier this month.

Without sharing any evidence, Bakhsi tweeted that dozens of Pakistani soldiers had lost their lives and many others were wounded while supporting the Taliban in Panjshir. He wrote that a certain "Maj Gen Adil Rehmani has come back to organise discreet funerals in [the] dead of night." Even though the account is not verified by Twitter, Bakshi's tweets have been carried by Indian media on multiple occasions in the past.

Bakshi, who had a long career in the Indian army and holds a PhD in military history, is known for peddling fake news and rhetoric on Indian TV. An article by Indian publication The Print last year referred to him as the "shrillest warmonger in the media".

Responding to his latest claims about Pakistani soldiers, a Pakistani account with the handle @Fauji_Doctor shared a picture from the set of the 2017 Pakistani movie *Yalghaar* — ostensibly to poke fun at the Indian ex-officer, and wrote: "My class fellow from school days Maj Aijaj 2nd from left and Capt Jufar 1st from left embraced martyrdom in Panjshir. They were buried yesterday in Peshawar. ISPR is trying to hide these casualties. They fought bravely and should be honoured as such. This is injustice by Pak Army."

In fact, the two uniformed men he referred to are renowned Pakistani actors Shaan Shahid and Umair Jaswal - neither of whom are members of the armed forces.



Unaware of this and apparently without having done any investigation, former Indian Maj Gen Harsha Kakar shared a screenshot of @Fauji_Doctor's reply to Bakshi as "the truth on #PanjshirValley and Pak casualties".

"As expected [National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf] lied and Pak disowned its dead," he alleged.



Pakistanis were amused by the Indian ex-officer's apparent naivete, with Shaan himself replying to Bakshi's original tweet with posters from Yalghaar. "Hello from the other side," he wrote with the pictures.


Jaswal too found the mix-up hilarious, responding to Bakshi with a picture of him in commando gear and writing: "Hello dear [laughing emoji] from Pakistan."

Jumping at the opportunity, other Pakistani users also shared spoof images of Pakistani actors in uniform to add to the joke.

Fake news about Pakistan's military involvement in Afghanistan surfaced as the Taliban said on Monday they had taken control of Panjshir province north of Kabul, the last holdout of anti-Taliban forces in the country and the only province the Taliban had not seized during their blitz across the country last month.

The anti-Taliban forces had been led by the former vice president, Amrullah Saleh, and Ahmad Massoud, whose father was killed just days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.

With Taliban fighters advancing into Panjshir, Indian media outlets during the previous week ran unverified claims of Pakistan Air Force planes hovering over Panjshir valley and dropping bombs on resistance fighters in support of the Taliban.

At least two Indian TV channels shared footage that they claimed showed Pakistani drones attacking anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir. But fact-check website Boom found that the viral clip was taken from a longer video recording of the video game Arma-3, and was not from the military conflict in Afghanistan.

Some Twitter users also shared a picture of a fighter jet claiming it showed a PAF plane that was shot down by resistance fighters in Panjshir, but a fact check by Dawn.com and independent journalists showed the picture is actually from 2018 in the United States.

An 'equal rights for women' Met Gala outfit can't hide US politician Carolyn Maloney's biased feminism

She once wore a burqa in the House of Representatives to argue in favour of the invasion of Afghanistan.

IMAGES STAFF
DESK REPORT

Dawn.com

American politician and NY Representative Carolyn Maloney was praised after attending the 2021 Met Gala fundraiser in a dress that had 'equal rights for women' written on it. However, many people aren't impressed with her because they remember when Maloney used her position of power to propagate negative stereotypes about Muslim women in the wake of 9/11.

Maloney showed up at the 2021 Met Gala wearing a dress emblazoned with the words 'equal rights for women' on it. Her dress also included purple, white and gold; colours used by suffragette groups who fought for women's rights, including the right to vote, in the West. Maloney's dress was a call for the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed amendment to the US constitution that will ensure equal rights for all American citizens regardless of their gender.

"Across the country, women’s rights are under attack," Maloney posted on Twitter along with a picture of her dress. "I have long used fashion as a force for change. As the Met Costume Institute reopens with their inaugural exhibit celebrating American designers, I am calling for the certification of the Equal Rights Amendment so women can be equal once and for all," she wrote

While Maloney's look was widely praised on social media, one Twitter user took the opportunity to remind netizens about a damning speech Maloney gave in the United States House of Representatives in 2001 shortly after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre. "'I have long used fashion as a force for change,' says the member of Congress who dressed up in a burqa to deliver a speech in support of the invasion of Afghanistan," the user tweeted.

The user shared a clip of the speech Maloney delivered while wearing the burqa. "I salute the Bush administration for balancing war with compassion. For dropping food as well as bombs. Even in war we are showing a regard for human life and human rights," she said.

The politician faced severe backlash against the stunt. US entrepreneur and activist Rana Abdelhamid said Maloney's speech fed into a negative narrative against Muslim women. "I was 9 years old when I watched my Congresswoman wear a burqa in Congress to justify the invasion of Afghanistan," she tweeted. "For the rest of my life, I knew that as a Muslim woman my identity would be weaponised to justify American wars."

Abdelhamid's comment came in the wake of US' military withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly 20 years after it had invaded the country in the wake of the 9/11 attacks

According to a local US channel NY1, Maloney defended wearing the burqa, arguing sometimes “you have to be dramatic” to raise awareness about an issue. "I was making a point," she said.

If you want to truly use fashion for your political activism, learn to be more respectful, Representative Maloney. You can make your point without using religious garments as a tool of illustration. We too believe in equal rights for women, but that doesn't mean that we mock the burqa or other garments that are often worn for religious purposes.

  

  

US war record not one to boast of: China Daily editorial

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-09-14 

FILE PHOTO: Captain Melvin Cabebe with the US Army's 1-320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division stands near a burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck an improvised explosive device (IED) near Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, July 23, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was grilled by lawmakers in a contentious hearing on Monday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee over how the administration had mishandled the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

They called the process "a disaster" and "a disgrace". They tried to seek answers as to why Americans and Afghans who had worked for the US government for years were left behind in total chaos before the military completed its withdrawal on Aug 30. They demanded accountability.

Yet what they forgot or chose not to ask is why the United States had got itself mired in the mess of the "Graveyard of Empires" in the first place. To ensure the US avoids repeating the same mistake in the years to come, they should have taken the opportunity to start a collective soul-searching into why the world's sole superpower is so addicted to wars.

According to National Interest magazine, from 1948 to 1991, the US engaged in 46 military interventions. From 1992 to 2017 the number increased fourfold to 188.

Actually, the US has enjoyed only 16 years of peace in its 242-year history, making the country "the most warlike nation in the history of the world", as former US president Jimmy Carter noted in 2019 when he spoke with then incumbent leader Donald Trump. Carter attributed the penchant for war to the US trying to force other countries to "adopt our American principles".

Wars are costly, and it is US taxpayers who foot the bill. The war on terror that started in 2001, has cost the US an estimated $8 trillion, and claimed over 900,000 lives around the world over the past two decades, according to a report issued recently by the Costs of War Project of Brown University. The war in Afghanistan alone has cost $2.3 trillion. That represents $300 million a day over the 20 years.

Yet despite the high costs, some in the US may still believe the wars that Washington initiates are worth it as they are convinced by the rhetoric that they are launched for noble purposes — to free people from tyranny and repression, or in defense of freedom, democracy and human rights. But the fact is, concerns about US power and influence have risen in many countries around the world. According to a 2017 Pew survey, 39 percent of the respondents across 38 countries consider US influence and power a direct and major threat to their countries.

It is time the US learned the lessons of its failed wars. The world does not want its declaration that "America is back" to be a promise of more wars to come.

Damning evidence

DAWN.COM
Editorial

Published September 14, 2021

FOREIGN MINISTER Shah Mahmood Qureshi has unveiled a dossier that lists in detail how New Delhi has been committing gross violations of human rights in India-held Kashmir. It claims that India has also been facilitating and sponsoring the international militant Islamic State group. Flanked by National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf and Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, Mr Qureshi dilated upon the comprehensive findings contained in the dossier and demanded that the international community take notice of these abuses.

Of particular note is the evidence presented in the dossier along with the names of those Indian officials involved in perpetrating these crimes. These names include generals, brigadiers and colonels of the Indian army as well as other officials of various security agencies. The dossier also pinpoints the locations of camps that India has apparently established for the IS terror outfit. Pakistan had issued a similar evidence-based dossier last year which had spelt out the Indian state’s involvement in acts of terror inside Pakistan.

Read: European lawmakers urge EU action on 'alarming humanitarian situation' in Indian-occupied Kashmir

It is obvious that India’s ongoing brutal tactics to quell the freedom struggle in Kashmir are being documented in great detail. The evidence pointing to India’s sponsorship of IS is extremely disturbing — and yet perhaps not altogether surprising given New Delhi’s increasing reliance on violence in pursuit of its interests. Under the present BJP government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state-sponsored brutality against the Kashmiri people as well as minorities in India has increased sharply. However, it is unfortunate that the international community has not expressed the outrage that these acts of state violence deserve. There is greater realisation among the community that Mr Modi’s India has become intolerant, dictatorial and dangerously majoritarian, but the reaction these traits should elicit has yet to materialise.

With Pakistan now providing substantive evidence of Indian state-sponsored violence and terrorism, it is high time that international organisations and world leaders sat up and took note. As the largest country in the region, India is injecting instability that can lead to unpredictable consequences. In fact, it may perhaps not be inaccurate to say that India has become the most potent factor for instability in the region and if it is not stopped from exporting violence across its borders, and fuelling it in the territory that it illegally occupies, then all stakeholders in the region could become a victim of its belligerence.

Pakistan has done well to proactively expose India’s actions. The foreign minister and the NSA should ensure that the dossier and its contents are not just shared with the international community, but also that policymakers in key capitals are convinced of the veracity of the evidence presented. This will require effective diplomacy and communication. Given the fragile regional situation, there is no time to waste. The press conference should be considered the start of a coordinated attempt in this direction. More evidence should continue to be shared.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2021

President Arif Alvi wants Pakistanis to talk about family planning and we’re here for it

He posted a powerful video on Twitter that urged people to destigmatise talking about family planning and reproduction.

Photo: AFP

President Arif Alvi recently shared a video on Twitter that got a lot of people talking. The video is about family planning and reproduction and urged people to destigmatise these topics for a healthier Pakistan.

"National health has a very deep connection to mother and child health. We should be giving priority to things that are important. Practice family planning for prosperity. Keep a check on the number of children. Make good health a reality. Don’t ignore this topic. Discuss it and spread the message. The informational video covers a range of social issues represented by different characters of the working class who are discouraged and disregarded for their efforts due to the associated stigma around the aforementioned topic of family planning and the wellbeing of individuals involved in the process," he wrote in Urdu.

This isn't the first time President Alvi has spoken about the importance of family planning. In June, he said there is a need to educate people about family planning and monitoring the growing population in the country.

The informational video he shared covers a range of social issues represented by different characters who are discouraged and disregarded for their efforts due to the associated stigma around the topic of family planning and the wellbeing of individuals involved in the process. It illustrates how people often bury their heads in the sand when it comes to conversations about family planning or reproduction. The brown paper bags or khaki lifafey used in the video convey people's embarrassment and shame when it comes to talking about this very important issue.

The video's tagline is "Soch ko khaki lifafey se azaad karo, baat karo [liberate your thoughts from the brown paper bag, talk about it."

There is also a constant reiteration for everyone to be equally present in the discussion whether it is a young girl trying to ask her teacher a question during anatomy class or a wife trying to introduce family planning alternatives to her husband.

There was a lot of support for the initiative and the president's words on Twitter. People hope it will finally ignite a much-needed conversation regarding an issue that is often brushed aside in shame and embarrassment.

We're so glad to see the president using his platform to spread information and awareness about a very important cause. In Pakistan, people often turn the other way when it comes to talking about reproduction and family planning. Most young women in Pakistan are familiar with brown paper bags — we're often told to hide our period products in them, as if they're shameful. But there is no shame in talking about reproduction and health and, as the video says, we need to get rid of the figurative brown paper bags when it comes to important discussions.

The president's support for this campaign comes in the lead up to World Contraception Day on September 26 and despite his message having its fair share of detractors, we hope it starts a conversation among the people who need it most.

Many users said it is important to share this campaign on other popular media platforms besides Twitter as well.

Are Hindu reformers anti-Hindu?

Jawed Naqvi

Published September 14, 2021 -

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.


LIKE other religions Hinduism has faced challenges from ancient times from within its fold and outside. Hindutva is a modern invention and the idea of a right-wing militarist nation state it panders to would not be possible before the advent of the nation states that came with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Some Muslim ideologues opposed the movement for Pakistan also on similar lines, saying there was no sanction for a nation state in Islam.

The three-day international conference on ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ ended on Sunday with important insights into Hinduism itself, but the discussions also revived memories of the pitfalls of similar projects and criticisms attempted in the recent and distant past.

One takeaway from the conference was that critiquing Hindutva, the militant philosophy that set out to model Hindus on the European fascism of the 1930s (by replacing European Jews with Indian Muslims and Christians as targets of hate) would remain incomplete if B.R. Ambedkar’s call for the destruction of the Hindu caste system remained unheeded. Ambedkar canvassed for equal and secular rights for everyone, starting with the liberation of the Dalits from Hinduism’s Brahminical hold and women from its patriarchal fold.

Read: How to dismantle Hindutva?

Organisers of the conference offered a word of caution. “To equate Hinduism and Hindutva is to fall into the narrow, bigoted, and reductionist fiction that instrumentalises Hinduism by erasing the diverse practices of the religion, the debates within the fold, as well as its conversations with other faiths. If the poet A.K. Ramanujan reminds us about the importance of acknowledging Three Hundred Ramayanas, then Hindutva seeks to obliterate that complexity into a monolithic fascism.”

Hinduism as we know it today has been in ferment since its inception.

A scholarly intervention made a less-discussed argument that underscored many commonality of views between Hindutva practitioners and Zionist settler class Jews in occupied Palestine. Akanksha Mehta particularly focused on the affinities between women activists of Hindutva and Jewish settler women. She introduced a different perspective to the currently overstated comparisons between the Taliban and Hindutva practices. Their colonial project and the economic underpinning of Hindutva and Zionism together with hidebound social and gender iniquities perpetuated within both groups present a remarkable similarity.

Ambedkar had noted the absence of a defining feature of Hinduism other than the caste. There were anti-idolatry Hindu sects and there were worshippers of deities and images and nature. In Bengal, they worship Durga as slayer of evil and protector of her followers. In swaths of Uttar Pradesh the role is given to Hanuman — sankatmochan, who clears the path of personal and social impediments. In Maharashtra, Ganapati is the vighna-haran or remover of obstacles dogging the followers.

Ambedkar listed Hindus who followed Muslim customs, observed circumcision and buried their dead. He pointed to Muslims who called Brahmin and Muslim priests to together preside over their weddings. It is a relic of the mediaeval Bhakti movement that Muslims and Hindus are entwined in the worship of common saints, particularly in Punjab. Atheists and monotheists also came out of the Vedic fold in early Hinduism and its accompanying Brahminical practices. Nastikas took a materialist view of the world and were opposed to Brahminical rituals. They were shunned as a class as were followers of Buddha and Mahavira.

I got a call from a close friend from Mumbai on Friday, a Jain with a modern lens. “I’m calling you to forgive me for any wrong I may have done you,” he said to my complete surprise. It was part of a period of Jain rituals, Sumedh Shah confided. It was observed over several days and ended with the quest for forgiveness from friends and family. The discussion veered around to a Jain belief that they were the original Indian atheists. And since Mahavira was the 24th teerthankar, a contemporary of Buddha around 600 BC, the claim would tend to put the atheism of Jains ahead of the Hindu nastikas.

Be that as it may, the point is that Hinduism as we know it today has been in ferment since its inception, not unlike other religions that branched off from their original purposes of peace and harmony, as Swami Vivekanand observed, into puritanism, mysticism and even bloodletting by acquiring weaponised and sectarian forms.

For close to two centuries in India, Hindu reformers have been trying to tweak Hinduism. Of these the most persistent but not entirely successful lot belonged to the Bengal Renaissance — from Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) to Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The question is: were the reformers anti-Hindu or Hindu-phobic, to use the term thrown by many right-wing Hindus at their critics. Supporters of militant Hindu groups in the US and India have used such terms to describe and even threaten rival Hindus against critiquing India’s current tryst with what is otherwise regarded as a great religion of the world.

The Bengal Renaissance canvassed support for banning child marriage, encouraging widow remarriage and scientific education, discouraging superstition and sati — the practice of Hindu widows being forced to sit on their husband’s funeral pyre.

The Bengal effort was, however, a social movement largely aloof from politics. The synthesis of politics and social reforms was to flower with Gandhi. When he arrived on the scene from South Africa, the political churning against colonialism had already spread from Bengal to Maharashtra and Punjab, but it had acquired pronouncedly Hindu motifs. The use of religion for anti-colonial mobilisation also tempted Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad. He applied the Bengal model to unfolding events in Turkey to woo Muslims to the Congress.

Gandhi strove to use religion to bring Hindus and Muslims together, but his attempt at reforming Hinduism was slammed as vacuous by Ambedkar, and as too emasculated for a fascist project by leaders like Savarkar and Golwalkar. It may not be wrong to ask, therefore: if Ambedkar failed to annihilate the Hindu caste system, what’s the chance the virulent Hindutva project could be dismantled with well-meaning intellectual cogitation?

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2021

Why Pakistan's new school textbooks are sparking backlash over gender

Should you judge this book by its cover? A father and son sit on the sofa doing homework while a mother and daughter sit on the floor. Critics have slammed these books for their outdated gender depictions.


Pakistan's new school textbook has sparked backlash in Pakistan

Pakistan's ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) launched its revised Single National Curriculum (SNC) in August this year, deeming it "a milestone to end disparity in the education system."

Following the recent release of the curriculum's accompanying new textbook, many have taken to social media to criticize what they view as patriarchal gender norms in the book.

The outrage is similar to criticism of the new curriculum by education experts, activists and the public who argue that it fails to promote and include gender equality, religious minorities and cultural diversity.

Women Action Forum released a statement, condemning the SNC as "based on ideological imperatives rather than pedagogical ones and will seed society with divisive thinking."

Judging a book by its cover

The cover of the Grade 5 English textbook depicts a father and son studying on a sofa, while the mother and daughter study on the floor. Both the mother and daughter are also covering their heads with a hijab and most of the covers of the textbooks show even young girls donning the hijab. Usually, girls begin wearing hijab when they reach puberty. In the same textbook, women leaders are cited as "supporters of men."

The textbooks were slammed for showing girls doing household chores

Girls and women are mainly depicted as mothers, daughters, wives and teachers. They are not included in acts of play or exercise. Only boys are seen playing and exercising, while girls are included in images where they are mere bystanders.

"Girls and women in Pakistan are excelling at sports right now. They are representing the country at the Olympics. They are climbing K2. Then why are the textbooks not reflecting this but rather excluding them from physical activity and competitive sports?" asked Baela Raza Jamil, CEO of Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) Center for Education and Awareness.

The textbooks have also drawn backlash for the depictions of head coverings for young girls and women.

Activist and sociologist Nida Kirmani told DW that the messaging around girls' clothing in the textbooks follows the messages the government has already been giving citizens about women's modesty and dress. Prime Minister Imran Khan recently caused outrage after making comments linking the rise in sexual violence to women's clothing.

"These books seem to be pushing a certain kind of dress on all girls and women but we know there exists all kinds of veiling practices in Pakistan, not just one way of dress," added Kirmani.

Ayesha Razzaque, technical advisor to the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, told DW that while there are instances of women being portrayed as policewomen or pilots, it is an exception to the rule and adds to the "gendered tokenism" prevalent in the curriculum.

According to her, proponents of the SNC from the far-right are cherry-picking such examples to dismiss criticism and give credibility to an agenda in the curriculum made to appease Pakistan's religious right-wing supporters.
Why were the books designed like this?

Razzaque argued that these stereotypical depictions exist because no gender or intersectional lens was utilized in the design of the books.

"Books that are meant to shape young minds need to have a consistent theme and tone interwoven into the curriculum, the SNC is lacking that. If a gender lens was applied at the design, we would definitely have very different messages and learning," she added.

Due to the lack of an inclusive perspective, the SNC does not reflect the "rich diversity" of Pakistan, especially when it comes to the multiplicity of women's experiences.

Justifications for the SNC by conservative groups, that Islamic countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia also depict girls and women with headscarves in their books, are surfacing.

Jamil from ITA hit back at these, telling DW that in a country like Pakistan where the female population disproportionately suffers from discriminatory customary traditions, by losing autonomy and subject to violent threats, the symbolism of head covering as a norm can lead to greater systematic violence against women.

"Where are all of us in the textbooks? Only a certain kind of Pakistani female reality is being shown and expectations of women to act that way are being reinforced. If we are to have gender parity, it has to start at a very young age," Jamil added.
New curriculum poses additional challenges

Pakistan's former chair of the Higher Education Commission, Tariq Banuri, told DW that he fears that the SNC will further "confuse" the education system in the country.

He added that the lack of representation of women, religious minorities and cultural diversity poses the risk of creating more divide than bridging differences.

"We risk another generation who can't question their learning. This is an insidious problem that we are faced with," he added.

Banuri commented, "The SNC was supposed to promote creativity and critical thinking but it is instead much of the same curriculum as the past years and is not of the quality to produce a generation of free-thinkers and innovators."

He added that more privileged students will be able to offset the conservative teachings with more analytical supplements but disadvantaged students will continue to suffer from such an education.

This looks set to pose a challenge to the aim of the SNC that was envisioned under the slogan, "One Nation, One Curriculum."

The southern province of Sindh has already rejected the SNC, deeming it "haphazard" and "sexist."



Nasir Hussain Shah, provincial minister for local government, tweeted: "We rejected this SNC because of the kind of message it is giving to our country's youth. This cover is giving the wrong message putting mother and daughter on the ground. We should instead teach our future generations that women are the crowns of our society."

Germany: Coal tops wind as primary electricity source

In the first half of 2021, coal shot up as the biggest contributor to Germany's electric grid, while wind power dropped to its lowest level since 2018. Officials say the weather is partly to blame

Although Germany is looking to boost renewable energies, coal unseated wind power

 as the country's main electricity source this year

Despite efforts to boost renewable energy sources, coal unseated wind power as the biggest energy contributor to the German network in the first six months of 2021, according to official statistics released on Monday.

The data comes as Germany looks to speed up its exit from coal-powered plants after years of mounting pressure from climate experts and activists over the country's dependence on coal and its detrimental impact in fueling the climate crisis.

But the latest figures also reveal the challenges that lie ahead with the country's energy shift.

What did the data show?

Data published by the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) found that the production of electricity from "conventional" energy sources rose by 20.9% this year, compared to the first half of 2020.

In total, conventional energy sources — including coal, natural gas and nuclear energy — comprised 56% of the total electricity fed into Germany's grid in the first half of 2021.

Coal was the leader out of the conventional energy sources, comprising over 27% of Germany's electricity. 

Wind power's contribution to the electric grid, on the other hand, dropped significantly compared to the previous year — from 29% to 22%.

Wind had been the top producer of electricity, but has now logged its lowest figures since 2018.

Why did renewable energy dip?

Renewable energies in total dropped during the first half of this year — going from the top producers of electricity to comprising 44%.

But what led to wind power's sudden fall? Statistics officials said the weather was partly to blame.

A lack of wind from January to March this year sharply reduced the amount of electricity produced by Germany's wind turbines. In contrast, stormy weather in the first quarters of 2019 and 2020 sharply boosted the electricity produced.

Germany is seeking to have wind, solar, biogas, and other renewable energy sources play a bigger role, as the country looks to completely phase out nuclear power by 2022 and coal-fired power plants by 2038.

rs/wmr (AFP, Reuters)

Methane: What's the big deal?

With much of the climate conversation centered around cutting carbon dioxide, less attention is paid to a more potent, less common and sometimes smellier greenhouse gas: methane.


Leaky natural gas pipelines are a huge source of 'fugitive' methane emissions

There's a reason why carbon dioxide has become the bogeyman of the climate crisis, considering just how much of it we've pumped into the atmosphere. We haven't stopped at CO2, however. Oh no, we've added methane into the toxic mix. While the gas, also known as CH4, has become almost synonymous with cattle flatulence, there's acutally much more to it than that. And it's nothing like as funny as a fart. Or a burp, which are the bigger bodily offenders.

Scientists estimate that although methane only accounts for 3% of emissions since 1750, it is linked to as much as 23% of historic warming. In other words, the stuff is potent. Really potent. As in, a single ton of methane causes roughly the equivalent warming of at least 28 tons of CO2 over the course of a century. And in the last two decades alone, we've managed to increase our output by 10%.

Reducing the amount that seeps into the atmosphere could be a secret weapon in the climate fight. In fact it could, according to a recent UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) report , avoid 0.3 degrees Celcius of warming by the 2040s.

Capping global heating to 1.5 degrees C by 2050 is a key aim of the IPCC 2015 Paris Climate Accord

Let's just do that then ...

If only it were that simple. Methane is not only the natural gas that supplies power stations and heats homes, it's also the stuff that wafts from landfills, rice paddies, the intestines of ruminants, wetlands, and in some instances, supposedly "green" hydropower reservoirs.

All told, the world emits 570 million tons of CH4 a year. We humans are responsible for 60% of that, with the gold medal going to farming. Partly, but not only, as a result of gassy livestock, the agricultural sector causes the same amount of warming as 788 million cars, which is more than half of the world's 1.4 billion-strong fleet.

Silver goes to none other than the fossil fuel industry, with the waste sector snatching bronze.

Fossil fuel infrastructure is a major, and avoidable, source of methane. Damaged and poorly maintained gas pipes leak the gas through patchable holes and processes, leading to what are commonly called "fugitive emissions." If they were better maintained, the equivalent of 1.83 billion tons of CO2 could be saved. And what's more, the natural gas saved from patching up the leaks would more than pay for the upgrades.

Fossil fuel operations are a major source of methane emissions

Sounds like a CH4 win-win

Hmmm. Yes, infrastructure improvements could reduce leaks, and tracing them is becoming easier thanks to satellite imaging that detects them, thereby making it harder for fossil fuel companies to hide or deny the flaws in their systems.

And by the same token, recovering burnable methane from waste could be financially incentivized. Landfill gas projects across the world are already capturing methane to burn. In the US, 70% of these LFGs produce gas for electricity generation. And at least we can use methane to burn.

But that's not ideal, since it produces carbon dioxide, which, as we've already established, is the bogeyman of the climate crisis.

Methane recovery system in place at a landfill in Marshall, Michigan, US

Why is it always so complicated?

That's a good one, but hang on, there's more. Because although we can change dodgy pipes, we can't exactly replumb our farmyard friends, which makes shrinking our animal's methane footprint a tad trickier.

That said, we can go some way to mitigating the problem by changing what we feed them. Something called FutureFeed, for example, does exactly that: it's a livestock feed that contains 3% Australian seaweed which has been shown to reduce emissions by 80%. Just a little bit of dietary greens cuts back on cow burps. Not bad going.

An easier option would be to change what we eat. Less meat and dairy equals fewer animals, equals fewer gases being belched out into the atmosphere.
Cutting down on meat can't be the answer to everything...

Not everything, but it ticks a couple of boxes. But we don't need to go there now. Not when we could be talking permafrost.

Most of the methane from livestock comes from the burps of ruminants like cows and lamb

Permawhat?

Permafrost. Thing is, as the Arctic heats up, areas of Earth that have been locked in frozen slumber for many millennia, are starting to thaw. And as that happens, they're not only revealing pristine condition — albeit dead — big cat species lost long ago to extinction, but thousands of years' worth of methane and CO2.

Some of this former icescape then transforms into new wetlands, which release methane into the atmosphere, helping temperatures to rise. Thawing permafrost could increase non-human methane emissions by 80%. And that, in turn increases the likelihood of droughts, fires, flooding and other extreme weather events everywhere around the world.


Thawing permafrosts in Siberia and nothern Canada could transform into methane intensive wetlands with a heating Arctic

Great. So where does that leave us?

With a gap between what's needed and what is actually being done. The latest IPCC report laid bare just how quickly we need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions before things get even worse.

While it might be impossible to do away with man-made methane emissions completely, cutting them even a little could generate time enough to develop green technologies, such as low-carbon planes and ships.

What's more, methane emitted at ground level forms ozone which can damage respiratory health. According to the UNEP, reducing CH4 output by45% could prevent 255,000 premature deaths per year.

Like many climate and environmental issues, policymakers are the ones with the power to affect meaningful, lasting change. But even as individuals we can make a contribution by (whether we like it or not), cutting back on burgers, palm oil and flying. Giving these industries our money sends them a seal of approval to continue with business as usual. But that, we have seen by now, is the one thing the planet cannot afford to let happen.

New Zealand: Maori party launches petition for country's name-change

New Zealand's indigenous political party has called on the parliament to officially change the country name to Aotearoa. The petition also seeks to "restore the original Te Reo Maori names for all towns, cities" by 2026.

 

The Maoris are the country's largest ethnic minority, representing 16.5% of the population

New Zealand's Maori party on Tuesday launched a petition on its website to officially change the country's name to Aotearoa – a longstanding demand of the indigenous group.

Aotearoa translates to "land of the long white cloud" in the Te Reo Maori language and is often used as a name for the Pacific island nation.

"It's well past time that Te Reo Maori was restored to its rightful place as the first and official language of this country. We are a Polynesian country, we are Aotearoa," said Rawiri Waititi, co-leader of Te Pati Maori.

The indigenous party also called for the national parliament to "identify and officially restore the original Te Reo Maori names for all towns, cities, and places right across the country by 2026."

"Tangata Whenua [indigenous people] are sick to death of our ancestral names being mangled, bastardized, and ignored. It's the 21st Century, this must change," Waititi said in a statement.

The Maoris are the largest ethnic minority, representing 16.5 percent of the population.

Te Reo Maori became an official language of New Zealand in 1987, alongside English.

Rawiri Waititi has challenged other conventions, such as the requirement to wear a tie in Wellington's Parliament

'No historical credibility'

The name Aotearoa, however, has a contested history, not least as it is believed to have originally been used to refer only to the North Island, rather than the country as a whole.

New Zealand's former deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters criticized the petition as "left-wing radical bulldust."

"Changing our country's name and town and city names is just dumb extremism," said Peters, the leader of the nationalist New Zealand First party.

"We are not changing to some name with no historical credibility. We are for keeping us New Zealand," he tweeted.

Last year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stopped short of backing a similar proposal.

"I hear more and more often the use of Aotearoa interchangeable with New Zealand and that is a positive thing," she has said in response to a question on the issue, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Over the years, government officials and even some companies have used Aotearoa interchangeably with or alongside New Zealand, including on citizen's passports.

The name New Zealand comes from the colonial era when cartographers from the Netherlands named it after the westernmost province Zeeland.

as/msh (dpa)