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Exclusive: 60% of parents want traffic to be diverted away from schools at peak times to protect children’s health, a new study shows

The majority of UK parents back the introduction of “pollution exclusion zones” outside schools amid growing concern that illegal levels of air pollution are doing long term damage to hundreds of thousands of young people.

A new study published on Monday by environmental law organisation ClientEarth reveals that 60% of parents want traffic diverted away from school gates at the beginning and end of the school day, with just 13% opposed.

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The frozen vault storing the world's precious seeds is about to reach the one million mark for donations.

What does it mean to live sustainably in our suburbs?

Everyday, Australians generate a lot of rubbish, and much of it ends up in landfill. Should we be turning that landfill into electricity?

2 March 1918 A lark struck upward, singing a stave or two at each successive plunge and in a few minutes overhead all was music in a thin haze

Surrey, February 28
Soon as dawn began to spread along the southern rim of the sky this morning, the lower down was alive with birds. Larks rose almost from underfoot, others started from the higher ridge, and all played, fleeting about in the air like children let into a fresh meadow in spring. At first there was little song. Then, as by inspiration, one struck upward, singing a stave or two at each successive plunge; another rose; others, distances away; in a few minutes overhead all was music in a thin haze. Southward long, grey clouds reddened and glowed from end to end, great shreds detached, chased northward, and melted to nothing in the lofty blue.

Related: Ascending larks keep the bird-snarer busy: Country diary 100 years ago

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Demand for locally sourced meat may be high but suppliers face uncertain regulatory and economic environment

Locally sourced meat, one of the cornerstones of modern sustainable eating, may soon be out of reach for consumers across the UK as large numbers of small suppliers are forced to close down.

Seeking out local meat, vegetables and other food products is increasingly embraced as part of a healthier diet that reduces environmental impact, allows clear traceability and improves farm welfare.

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Elveden, Suffolk: Dell is a folky term – a word in the minds of Milton and Tolkien, of outlawed church groups gathered for moonlit worship, of children seeking fairies

The word “dell” is pure, earthy English. From it we have acquired dale, a valley. But as grand as it has developed, the meaning of this Old English word remains as it was, a wooded hollow – somehow over time engendering an intimacy and aura benignly Arcadian in feel. Dells have a strange magic through literature, which is where the word lives now. No longer practical, more an alternative to evoke, rather than inform. A folky term – a word in the minds of Milton and Tolkien, of outlawed church groups gathered for moonlit worship, of children seeking fairies, or singing in rhyme. These days the farmer tends to be in his den rather than the dell – although the two words are, in this context, synonymous. As such they could have called this little village on the edge of Thetford Forest Elvedell, but they called it Elveden.

This roadside dell in Elveden has an old story for its old name, Elveden Dell: literally, the dell of the valley of the elves. A little girl who heard beguiling sounds, tinkling, in high boughs. Then, the same half-music luring horses off the road into here – now the magic dell, of course.

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Where South32 has moved to divest from thermal coal, BHP is increasing its exposure – and undermining its climate credentials.

Industry warns NEG too complex, likely to boost prices, cut competition. If it won't reduce emissions either, what exactly is the point?

South Australia's renewables grid is often criticised for relying on "imports" from other states. But no grid relies more on imports than NSW, the grid with the highest percentage of coal generation.

The UK electricity market offers convincing evidence that capacity markets aren’t needed, and we should focus, instead, on supporting technologies – like battery storage.

Students gatecrash Energy Security Board forum on National Energy Guarantee. But the promise to "listen" was only extended to industry participants, and even they warned about reduced competition and higher prices likely caused by an overly complex policy.

Australia set to get a new all-electric luxury SUV on market in October, with launch of Jaguar Land Rover I-Pace.

Meet the catering brigade - the often forgotten volunteers of the RFS; the endangered Mary River cod is making a comeback; Sydney's Vietnamese community picks their own lychees; and the Darkan show is back after 60 years.

Vets and medical staff teaming up to reduce antibiotic use on farms.

The falling cost of solar power and batteries is having a “significant impact” on the coal sector, says India's national coal company.

Species remains UK’s fastest declining mammal despite large reintroduction programme

The number of areas where water voles are found across England and Wales has fallen by almost a third in 10 years, research has found.

The species, which provided the model for the much-loved character Ratty in The Wind of the Willows, has suffered catastrophic declines over several decades and is the UK’s fastest declining mammal.

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Australia's flagship climate policy, has spent more than $2 billion on emissions reductions, yet big businesses could wipe all this out. Time to resurrect the idea of a simple carbon tax. Ian A. MacKenzie, Senior Lecturer in Economics, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Scientists are alarmed by a rise in mass mortality events – when species die in their thousands. Is it all down to climate change?

There was almost something biblical about the scene of devastation that lay before Richard Kock as he stood in the wilderness of the Kazakhstan steppe. Dotted across the grassy plain, as far as the eye could see, were the corpses of thousands upon thousands of saiga antelopes. All appeared to have fallen where they were feeding.

Some were mothers that had travelled to this remote wilderness for the annual calving season, while others were their offspring, just a few days old. Each had died in just a few hours from blood poisoning. In the 30C heat of a May day, the air around each of the rotting hulks was thick with flies.

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South-east Asian idylls – from Philippine islands to the Thai bay made famous in The Beach – plan to turn tourists away so that devastated coral reefs have some time to recover. Will it be enough?

Our Thai tour guide, Spicey, takes a drag on her cigarette and gestures sadly towards the beach. “The problem with people is that they are too greedy. They see a beautiful place and they want it. They take, take, take from nature. And then they destroy it.”

The golden sands of Maya Bay where Spicey stands are some of the most famous in the world. This once-idyllic cove, on the tiny Thai island of Koh Phi Phi Leh, was the paradise location of The Beach, Danny Boyle’s 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was then pushed by tourism officials in advertising campaigns to entice more wealthy visitors to Thailand.

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