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Of course the unacceptable levels of air pollution in our cities is an issue that central and local government must urgently tackle (Report, 25 February). However, the elephant in the room is that millions of city dwellers routinely make unnecessary car journeys and they need to accept their responsibility and switch to alternative means of transport. Ironically, those children at London schools and nurseries you highlight are often being poisoned by their own parents’ vehicles and those of their classmates’ parents on the school run. I walk my children the mile to their school, while most of their friends are driven through the traffic-choked streets. It takes about the same time, but those families have contributed to the toxicity of the air and have done no exercise.
Adam Manolson
London

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I am completely appalled to read that an organisation that is supposed to promote wildlife and nature in this country should be recruiting volunteers to kill the UK’s grey squirrels in the north (Thousands of volunteers wanted to save red squirrel, 24 February).

This diminishes the ethos of the Wildlife Trusts. I do not believe that the culling process can ever be made humane and the idea of bludgeoning squirrels to death is barbaric. In addition I fear that the cull will need to be extended to all of the UK’s regions to prevent replenishment of culled areas by southern squirrels. The enhanced transmissibility of the squirrel pox virus among red squirrels suggests the solution should be to work to increase their resistance to this disease, rather than trying to eliminate it in its entirety by culling grey squirrels in case they harbour it.

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Exclusive: Plan also targets local air and noise pollution but critics say long-term solutions to environmental challenges are no closer to reality

The huge growth in flights from Heathrow’s planned new runway could be carbon neutral, according to an ambition revealed by the airport.

The 260,000 extra flights a year anticipated from the third runway would make the airport the UK’s largest source of carbon emissions. But Heathrow’s new sustainability plan suggests other ways to offset the leap in emissions, including by restoring British peat bogs.

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A British Museum expert says the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs are of international importance.

The growing population of echidnas at Mulligans Flat Woodlands Sanctuary has forced researchers to consider ways of regulating the population.

Spraybot can fit under floorboards to help insulate homes.

Critics say public information film shows Shell ‘understood the threat was dire, potentially existential for civilisation, more than a quarter of a century ago’

• ‘Shell knew’: oil giant’s 1991 film warned of climate change danger

Climate change “at a rate faster than at any time since the end of the ice age – change too fast perhaps for life to adapt, without severe dislocation”. That was the startling warning issued by the oil giant Shell more than a quarter of a century ago.

The company’s farsighted 1991 film, titled Climate of Concern, set out with crystal clarity how the world was warming and that serious consequences could well result.

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Public information film unseen for years shows Shell had clear grasp of global warming 26 years ago but has not acted accordingly since, say critics

• Film warned of climate change ‘at rate faster than at any time since end of the ice age’

The oil giant Shell issued a stark warning of the catastrophic risks of climate change more than a quarter of century ago in a prescient 1991 film that has been rediscovered.

However, since then the company has invested heavily in highly polluting oil reserves and helped lobby against climate action, leading to accusations that Shell knew the grave risks of global warming but did not act accordingly.

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In 1991, Shell produced a public documentary on global warming called Climate of Concern. It warned that trends in global temperatures raised serious risks of famines, floods and climate refugees. But in the quarter century since, Shell has continued to invest heavily in fossil fuels
• Shell’s 1991 warning: climate changing ‘at faster rate than at any time since end of ice age’

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Blanchland Moor, Northumberland Strutting and posturing, the grouse makes it clear that this is his territory

On shallow puddles, delicate fans of ice dissolve under the morning sun as we follow the sandy track over Blanchland Moor. These heather uplands, now every tone of brown from straw to sepia, fill the eye with purple every August.

Stopping on a south-facing bank, we share a flask of tea, a stand of thorn trees at our backs for shelter. Nearby is the outlying farmstead of Pennypie House. The name is said to derive from cattle drovers stopping at the farm to buy a pie for a penny, but it may also be a corruption of “penny pay”, a toll asked of travellers on the ancient track. Though it’s only about four miles across, different areas of the moor have colourful names denoting ownership: Burntshieldhaugh Fell, Cowbyers Fell, Bulbeck Common and Birkside Fell.

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Environmental groups have launched a legal challenge to the government's rule change.

Bloomberg chart shows tide turning on the uptake of electric cars, as more EV models fall to around $US20,000 mark.

A group of Australians have joined a list of so-called "eminent scientists" telling president Trump that climate science is baloney.

Infigen Energy secures PPA with EnergyAustralia to buy 60% of output of proposed 113MW Bodangora wind farm in NSW to 2030.

The new Victorian feed-in tariff announced today marks an important turning point in the struggle for recognition of the real value of distributed renewable energy.

Large scale battery storage developers have expressed their frustration with Australia's knowledge gap, saying regulators and ministers appear completely unaware the technology is being deployed at scale elsewhere in the world.

$200m Clean Energy Innovation Fund is coordinating a meeting between investors and start-ups, in new push to fast-track low-carbon energy sector.

Victoria solar households to get big lift in payments for exports to the grid, but Greens say households still being sold short.

Artificial nests have a markedly different microclimate from tree cavities, a study suggests.

Huge numbers of draughty homes could stop it meeting emissions targets by 2050, a report says.