At a time when we desperately need children to be environmentally educated, their understanding of biodiversity is being outsourced to digital media. To deprive them of the innocence of outdoor play is to jeopardise the fragile future of our environment.

As far as natural advantages go it's fair to say Lanzarote lucked out. The fourth largest and most eastern of Spain's Canary Islands, Lanzarote's also the oldest and flattest. So the wind, rain and humidity that affect its neighbours leave Lanzarote relatively unscathed.

According to scientists from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center, the current Arctic sea ice cover is the smallest size ever observed in the three decades since consistent satellite observations of the polar cap began