As the soundscape of the natural world began to disappear over 30 years, one man was listening and recording it all

Read more: World faces ‘deathly silence’ of nature as wildlife disappears, warn experts

The tale starts 30 years ago, when Bernie Krause made his first audio clip in Sugarloaf Ridge state park, 20 minutes’ drive from his house near San Francisco. He chose a spot near an old bigleaf maple. Many people loved this place: there was a creek and a scattering of picnic benches nearby.

As a soundscape recordist, Krause had travelled around the world listening to the planet. But in 1993 he turned his attention to what was happening on his doorstep. In his first recording, a stream of chortles, peeps and squeaks erupt from the animals that lived in the rich, scrubby habitat. His sensitive microphones captured the sounds of the creek, creatures rustling through undergrowth, and the songs of the spotted towhee, orange-crowned warbler, house wren and mourning dove.

El Niño weather phenomenon has contributed to warm, dry conditions in US, leading to more fires much earlier in the year

The US midwest typically spends the start of spring emerging from snow. But this year, after a warm winter left landscapes parched, the region instead was primed to burn. Hundreds of blazes ignited in recent months in states more accustomed to dealing with just dozens for this time of year, as extreme fire behavior defied seasonal norms.

Experts say the unusually early and active fire season was a symptom of El Niño, a climate pattern characterized by warmer surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that was predicted to supercharge global heating and extreme weather. But the climate crisis turned up the dial, and helped create conditions in the midwest where winter temperature records were not only broken – they were smashed.

Up to 25,000 holidaymakers, mainly from Britain, in line for vouchers to cover a week’s hotel stay

It has required new legislation and navigation of copious red tape but nine months after wildfires devastated Rhodes , Greece has launched the first “free” holidays for thousands of tourists forced to flee the island.

In a decision tourism officials call a world first, up to 25,000 affected holidaymakers will, as of this week, be eligible for compensation.

Worst-ever fire season in 2023 saw 15m hectare burned, eight firefighters killed and 230,000 people evacuated

Canada risks another “catastrophic” wildfire season, the federal government has warned, forecasting higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country, boosted by El Niño weather conditions.

Last year, Canada endured its worst-ever fire season , with more than 6,600 blazes burning 15m hectares (37m acres), an area roughly seven times the annual average. Eight firefighters died and 230,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

Co-director and star Peter Facinelli must rescue his family trapped by a wildfire, but while he digs deep to save them the film dodges the really big question raised here

It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that eco-thrillers are films that preach to the converted. So, fair dos to this environmental drama for also preaching to another cohort of the converted: Christians. The script shoehorns in a few prayer scenes to appeal to viewers of faith – though cynics might think it is a shameless attempt to cover all audience bases. The story follows a family caught up in a wildfire raging out of control in California, shot in a throwback style to vintage disaster movies of the 80s – though clearly on a tight budget that really shows in some cheap smoke-machine effects.

Dave (played by co-director Peter Facinelli) is a builder who lives with his eight-months-pregnant wife Sarah (Fiona Dourif) and their teenage son in a house in the California forest; his elderly dad is in a mobile home in the garden. None of them are too concerned when a wildfire tears through a neighbouring community. Still, their home isn’t insured, so Dave drives off to the hardware store for supplies. He’s out when the evacuation order is issued for their area. Somehow Dave must dodge the police roadblock to reach his family and get them to safety (while finding time to squeeze in the odd plea to Him upstairs for help).

Natural England-backed scheme at most southerly tip of UK will nurture lichens, liverworts and wildflowers

The landscape at the most southerly tip of mainland Britain is expansive and grand: rolling heath and grasslands, spectacular cliffs, crashing waves.

But a recovery project funded by Natural England is focusing on unique and vital “microhabitats” found in sometimes overlooked spots on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall.

After year of devastating blazes from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, prospect of 2024 season offers little hope of respite

Canada’s pristine air quality has been long praised by its citizens and prized by its government . But the thick plumes of smoke and miles of haze released by a record-breaking season of wildfires deteriorated the country’s air so much that it has fallen behind the United States for the first time on record, highlighting the wide-ranging and damaging effects of the blazes.

In its sixth annual World Air Quality report released on Tuesday, the Switzerland-based IQAir found overall air quality in Canada was worse than its southern neighbour. Of the 15 most polluted cities in the two countries, 14 were in Canada. Overall, Canada and the United States were ranked 93 and 102 for their air quality (Bangladesh, at No 1 was the most polluted).

As ‘disaster capitalists’ text survivors with offers to buy their ruined homes, a land trust is trying to help residents keep them

Mere days after wildfires tore through Maui last August and leveled the historic town of Lahaina, community organizers warned that longtime residents were vulnerable to predatory land grabs.

And they were right. As search and rescue teams painstakingly combed through the scorched ruins, traumatized survivors began receiving texts, voice messages, and letters from speculators and realtors offering to buy their burnt-out homes.

Dangers of wildfires, extreme weather and other factors outgrowing preparedness, European Environment Agency says

Europe is not prepared for the rapidly growing climate risks it faces, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has said in its first risk assessment .

From wildfires burning down homes to violent weather straining public finances, the report says more action is needed to address half of the 36 significant climate risks with potentially severe consequences that it identifies for Europe. Five more risks need urgent action, the report says.