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Prince Charles has been signed up by the publishers to write an expert’s book. But maybe readers nowadays prefer spoofs

My twins are “studying” Jack and the Beanstalk, and I’ve just packed them off to school with my battered copy of Ladybird’s Well-Loved Tales.

I’ve collected a few old Ladybirds from car boot sales because they are beautiful and nostalgic, hailing from a time when truths were simpler and there was faith in the future. My favourite is The Story of Newspapers, a Ladybird Achievements Book that is testimony to the speed of terrifying technical obsolescence – and welcome progress. A drawing of a newsroom where all 14 journalists are men shows the past wasn’t always lovely.

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The incoming Trump administration accepts far more of the research on climate change than many of their political supporters, say British scientists.

The British Antarctic Survey is pulling all staff out of the space-age Halley base in March because of a big crack in nearby ice.

Norway’s two-day city centre ban angers motorists who were encouraged to buy diesel vehicles in 2006

Oslo will ban diesel cars from the road for at least two days this week to combat rising air pollution, angering some motorists after they were urged to buy diesel cars a few years ago.

The ban will go into effect on Tuesday on municipal roads but will not apply on the national motorways that criss-cross the Norwegian capital. Better atmospheric conditions are expected on Thursday. Motorists violating the ban will be fined 1,500 kroner (£174).

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Flames from an exploding battery were put out in less than half a second during tests.

ETI says technology is 10 times dearer than other low carbon power sources and UK should prioritise tidal stream

An embryonic industry trying to harness the UK’s waves to generate clean electricity has been dealt a significant blow by a warning that the technology is too costly.

Wave power devices being tested in Cornwall and at Orkney are 10 times more expensive than other sources of low carbon power and need a radical rethink, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) said.

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The remaining climate change uncertainties point toward higher risks and greater urgency for action

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State – and until recently the CEO of ExxonMobil – Rex Tillerson was given a confirmation hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. In his testimony, Tillerson accepted the reality of human-caused global warming and that “The risk of climate change does exist and the consequences of it could be serious enough that action should be taken.”

While he accepted the problem exists, Tillerson nevertheless proceeded to downplay its risks, saying:

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Sharp rise in discarded electronic goods is generating millions of tonnes of hazardous waste, putting pressure on valuable resources and the environment, study shows

Asia’s mountains of hazardous electronic trash, or e-waste, are growing rapidly, new research reveals, with China leading the way.

A record 16m tonnes of electronic trash, containing both toxic and valuable materials, were generated in a single year – up 63% in five years, new analysis looking at 12 countries in east and south-east Asia shows.

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Cardigan Bay, Ceredigion Made up of rounded cobbles graded in size, this ‘causeway’ looks beguilingly like the work of our ancestors

The amount of ice on the narrow footpath came as a surprise. Hidden from the sun on the south side of the valley, it had probably accumulated over a number of days – along with the layered, crusted frost on the nearby vegetation. Few people seemed to have walked this stretch of the Wales coast path recently; a fox crossing the track ahead and a briefly perched buzzard both seemed shocked to see me.

As I reached the footbridge above the beach at Wallog, I folded away my heavily used Ordnance Survey map and consulted its nautical equivalent. While OS maps provide only scant information about the space beyond the coast, admiralty charts give detailed data on the underwater landscape – in this case the geological oddity that is Sarn Wallog.

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Engie to invest in new large scale solar farms as it prepares to close Hazelwood, confirming the rapid shift from coal fired power to solar in Australia. Still, conservatives and fossil fuel lobbyists are continuing to attack renewables.

Tesla reveal how those without unlimited Supercharger access for the Model S and Model X electric vehicles will be charged.

Masen, Morocco’s public agency for renewable energies, has revealed that Acwa Power will develop 170 MW of solar PV plants in the country at a rate of €0.0422 per kWh.

Spot electricity prices averaged $447/MWh for the week in Queensland, and surged above $13,000 on a couple of occasions. Of course, there is no newspaper article when this happens because, since there is basically only rooftop PV in the state in the way of renewables, there is no convenient scapegoat.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo promises declining carbon emissions even as the state closes the Indian Point nuclear power plant.

Obama sees the world as at a tipping point and that a clean energy revolution is already underway.

This video taken from a drone shows travel blogger Isabelle Fabre’s close encounter with a great white shark while kitesurfing off the West Australian coast. Fabre explains that she initially thought the shadow under her board was from her kite, and then that it was a dolphin. ‘I heard Cyril shouting “Shark! Isabelle, get out!” He saw everything through the drone and he thought I was done’

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Environment minister says government ‘deeply disappointed’ after Sea Shepherd photos show minke whale killing in Antarctic sanctuary

The federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has criticised Japan following the release of photographs allegedly showing the slaughtering of protected whales inside Australia’s Antarctic whale sanctuary.

Frydenberg’s statement came as conservationists called for tougher action from Australia.

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Afghan refugees are happy to call Shepparton home; training up the next generation of jackeroos and jillaroos; we cruise Wilson Inlet with fisherman George Ebbett; and give baby crocs a helping hand into the world.

In the past, extreme weather and disastrous harvests have proved socially divisive. We have been warned, say climate researchers

In the winter of 1432-33 people in Scotland “had to use fire to melt the wine before drinking it” ran a line in the research about the coldest decade of winters in the last 1,000 years.

Short of real temperature readings, descriptions of such incidents and records of rivers and lakes freezing over for months at a time, tree rings and ice cores are what climate scientists have to use to trace weather extremes of the past.

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Over the weekend, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott urged the Coalition to dump the Renewable Energy Target.