The Arctic would leave you cold

THE outdoors haven’t been pleasant for the past couple of weeks, with Atlantic storms and short, dark days. But there are many places worse off.

The great boreal forest is under a smothering blanket of snow, and the tundra to the north of it is a hard, icy desert. Daylight is reduced to a slight increase in brightness in the southern sky, around midday.

I have visited the Arctic in winter, and it’s a strange place. The only wildlife I remember was a pair of ravens, which looked much blacker against the blinding whiteness of undisturbed snow.