The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has been urged not to “jeopardise green education” after threatening to axe a scheme aimed at creating sustainable schools.

The news comes after the government controversially cut the schools rebuilding programme and axed a scheme to create 5,000 green work experience placements. Now the Department for Education looks set to drop the Sustainable School Strategy.

The plan was condemned by People & Planet and Friends of the Earth.

People & Planet, the UK's largest student campaigning network, said that evidence from the previous education department and numerous other sources has shown that those schools who implement sustainability have raised standards as well as staff and student wellbeing.

The organisation, which coordinates the Go Green campaign to help schools cut their carbon emissions, called on the government to ensure that there are opportunities and resources for all students to learn about sustainability issues.

“Abandoning a coordinated approach to creating sustainable schools is akin to abandoning hope that the next generation can tackle the greatest threats to our society,” insisted Jamie Clarke, People & Planet's Education Manager, “It further compounds the impression that the coalition government is saddling the future generation with an environmental debt”.

He pointed out that schools produce a fifth of all public sector greenhouse emissions. “Schools need to be at the heart of the green society, preparing the next generation for the challenges that face our world, and to be at the forefront of the future economy,” he said.

Student Matt McMullen added, “It is vital that we continue to support schools to become sustainable, especially at this critical moment, so that we can create a big society where we can tackle the defining issues of our generation. We want a better future.”

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Disabled people are largely hidden in day-to-day life despite the public believing that they should be given a level-playing field of opportunity, a new poll shows.

In an opinion survey commissioned by charity Scope from ComRes, 91% of people stated that they believed disabled people should have the same opportunities as everyone else.

Worryingly, nearly 40% of people who are not disabled and do not have a disabled family member do not know any disabled people.

90% of Britons have never had a disabled person to their house for a social occasion and only a fifth (21%) have ever had the chance to work with a disabled colleague.

The results demonstrate that disabled people are already relatively invisible in daily life, says Scope.

Concern is also growing that the forthcoming Government spending cuts, which are likely to hit disabled people among the hardest, may end up pushing them into further social exclusion and even cut them out of society altogether.

The report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies ‘The distributional effect of tax and benefit reforms to be introduced between June 2010 and April 2014: a revised assessment' (Browne and Levell, 25/08/10) highlights that 20% of current recipients of DLA will lose their entitlement as part of the systems reform.

Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of Scope, commented: “This is shocking evidence that shows that disabled people are still relatively invisible in day-to-day life. We are deeply concerned that the Government’s spending cuts will end up pushing disabled people even closer to the fringes of society."

He continued: “The Government needs to carry out a full impact assessment before making any cuts to ensure they understand the full consequences of reductions in critical support such as Disability Living Allowance and Incapacity Benefit. These form a vital lifeline for many disabled people and their families."

“Without fully understanding the nature of disabled people’s lives, or the impact these changes will have, the Government may find itself causing extreme distress and financial hardship to disabled people which could end up creating greater dependency on the state and an even greater demand on the public purse,” said Hawkes.

ComRes interviewed 2,030 British adults online between 20 and 22 August 2010. Data was weighted to be representative demographically of all British adults.

Leading disability charity Scope (http://www.scope.org.uk/) "believes disabled people should have the same opportunities as everyone else. We run services and campaigns with disabled people to make this happen. As a charity with expertise in complex support needs and cerebral palsy, we never set limits on potential."

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The Bushmen of Botswana have lodged an appeal against a High Court decision that denied them access to water on their ancestral lands.

In July 2010, Justice Walia dismissed the Bushmen’s application for permission to use a well on their lands inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, expressing sympathy for the government’s position that ‘having chosen to settle at an uncomfortably distant location, [the Bushmen] have brought upon themselves any discomfort they may endure.’

The ruling came a week before the UN formally recognised water as a fundamental human right. It has also been condemned by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Africa’s key human rights body, for denying the ‘right to life’ enshrined in the African Charter.

In 2002, the Bushmen were evicted from their lands by the Botswana government; a move declared by the High Court as illegal and unconstitutional. However, despite the ruling, the government continues to prevent Bushmen from returning home by banning them from accessing a well which they rely on for water. Without it, they are forced to make arduous journeys to fetch water from outside their reserve.

The Bushmen launched legal proceedings in a bid to gain access to the well, which the government sealed and capped during the 2002 evictions. Even though the Bushmen have said they will raise the funds required to operate the well, the government claims that they need permission to do so and has refused to give it.

At the same time, the government has created new wells for wildlife in the reserve, allowed the opening of a Wilderness Safaris tourist lodge with swimming pool on Bushman land, and is due to give the go ahead for a diamond mine at one of the Bushman communities.

Botswana’s president, Ian Khama, who sits on the board of Conservation International, has described the Bushmen’s way of life as "an archaic fantasy".

Bushman spokesman, Jumanda Gakelebone, said, "Like all human beings, we can’t live without water. We, the Bushmen, are appealing for our basic human right, and the world is watching".

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Politicians need to focus on the human face of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not discard it in favour of their own political agendas, the head of the World Council of Churches has said in the Middle East - writes Judith Sudilovsky from Jerusalem.

"Politicians need to act and prevent this human tragedy," WCC General Secretary, the Rev Olav Fykse Tveit, told ENInews after a visit to Palestinian families who have been evicted by Israelis from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheik Jarrah.

He said that although there are many holy sites in the Holy Land, the people who live on the land are also holy. "This is not about political principles, this is about human beings. It is a shame that politicians are interested more in their own political interests than in bringing basic human rights," said Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran theologian.

It is Tveit's first visit to the Holy Land as WCC General Secretary, although he visited the region several times before taking up his post at the Geneva-headquartered church grouping in January.

In addition to meeting with the leaders of local churches, Tveit was scheduled to meet with the Israeli chief rabbis, representatives of several Jewish group partners and the Jerusalem Grand Mufti, a representative of Islam. Tveit also travelled to Bethlehem and Hebron.

On the fourth day of his six-day visit to the Holy Land, Tveit noted that meeting with the family members from about 12 families evicted from their homes in the past two years greatly affected his understanding of infringements of Palestinian rights which are taking place.

Nabil Al-Kurd, 67, whose family was evicted from half of his two-building home, told Tveit that Jewish settlers harassed the families, and that the families' sons as young as nine and 12 have been taken in by Israel police for questioning.

Still, he also mentioned that every week a group of Israelis and others who support them protest against the eviction, along with the affected families.

Al-Kurd's 88-year-old mother, Refqa Al-Kurd, recalled how they woke up one day in the other building and found all their furniture from the front building strewn in their yard. She described how she had been attacked by police when she protested against the eviction.

"There can be no peace for both sides if both sides do not have security," Tveit said. "This has nothing to do with religion; it is an abuse of power. How can there be good relations with these people afterwards? If we love God we are also called to love our neighbours as ourselves."

Zakariah Odeh, the executive director of the Civic Coalition for Jerusalem who briefed Tveit on the situation, said the legal case against the families has been before Israeli courts for 37 years. Israeli settler groups claim the land on which the homes are built is Jewish-owned. Odeh said however about 28 Palestinian refugee families had been settled in the area under a 1956 agreement between Jordan, which had control of the area before 1967 and provided the land, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which built the houses.

"This type of situation also destroys Israel … It is not giving [Israelis] the freedom to live as good neighbours," said Tveit. "Churches around the world have the duty to speak out to [those in power] about the responsibility they have towards taking care of the basic human rights here."

The WCC General Secretary said the issue of the presence of Palestinians in Jerusalem, including Christian Palestinians, regarding their residency rights in the city, needs to be addressed. He noted the need of support for local churches to keep their young people from emigrating due to a lack of economic and social opportunities, especially in the city of Jerusalem.

Tveit said it is important for the WCC and local churches to foster awareness of the situation, with programmes such as the WCC's Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. This enables people from outside to the West Bank to experience life in areas under occupation.

The WCC groups 349 churches, principally Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant.

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

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