Lying alongside mountains of smelly garbage under the South American sun, Cateura is a long way from the conservatories of Prague or Vienna. Yet the township, which grew out of Paraguay's largest dump(垃圾场), is gaining a reputation as a hothouse for musical talent and for its youth orchestra(管弦乐队) that plays instruments made from garbage. "The world sends us garbage. We send back music," says Favio Chavez, leader of the "Recycled Orchestra," during a recent visit by the group to Los Angeles. Orchestra members, poor children from Cateura, play violins fashioned from oven trays and guitars made from dessert dishes. The orchestra provides the youngsters an outlet and an escape, a chance to go beyond the mess of their slum(贫民窟) through the music of Mozart, and even Sinatra. "In the beginning, it was difficult to play," says the l0-year-old violinist Celeste Fleitas." But Favio helped me learn over time. From Favio, I have learned to be more responsible and value the things I have."

The destination for more than 1,500 tons of waste each day, the community has no safe drinking water and little access to electricity or sanitation(卫生设施). Illiteracy is severe, and the children of the township often fall into drugs, violence and crimes.

Favio Chavez, a musical talent, came to Cateura as an environmental technician in 2006 and started a youth music school. He knew shop-bought instruments were beyond the means of villagers whose sheds are worth less than a violin, so he approached a carpenter to make some out of waste from the dump.

The orchestra caught the eye of Paraguayan filmmaker Alejandra Amarilla. She uploaded a short piece of the orchestra to YouTube in 2012, hoping to secure crowdfunding for what would become Landfill Harmonic, a documentary released across the United States this month and promoting the youngsters on a tour of the world's music halls later on.

Not much happens in the sleepy village of Colaton Raleigh, where almost half of the residents are retired, so local walkers were horrified when they discovered 100 ancient beech trees were cut down.

Residents in the east Devon community are saddened by the loss of the beloved trees, which were cut down by a government agency without consulting the community or council. They were located in a special conservation area and site of special scientific interest, and were home to lots of local plants and animals.

An application was made by a local landowner to the Forestry Commission, a branch of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It would not comment on individual cases, but said all decisions were taken in line with its standards. Alan Pearce, a local tree manager, said, “It certainly ought to be a fairly wide consultation because it’s part of our heritage. Once they’re gone you’re talking about 200 years to regrow. The stumps (树桩) look, nearly all of them, perfectly sound and solid. I can’t see they can say they were diseased or dying. We’re meant to be planting trees, not felling (砍) them.”

He said people were “absolutely horrified”, with one walker in tears over the felling, which he suggested may have been taken to improve grassland in the nearby field.

Resident Fiona Carroll said, “Many people walk in this area as it is part of a large expanse of heathland and they are at a loss as to why this has been allowed to happen. These were valuable landscape and wildlife trees situated along an extensive ancient Devon bank. The roots had grown into large supporting structures giving many a distinctive look.”

Ewan Macdonald, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, who studies how people engage with the environment, said he was not surprised the felling had caused such an emotional reaction because of the way people connected with trees. He said, “It highlights how intrinsically (内在地) bound up things like trees, the environment and conservation are with our culture.”

A new survey by non-profit No Meat May has revealed that old-fashioned attitudes towards meat and manliness have not changed. Out of 1000 Aussies questioned, almost 1 in 2 associated a diet high in meat with manliness, including 47% of women. Moreover, 73% of the men surveyed said they would rather die 10 years earlier than give up eating meat. This shocking statistic corresponds to the figure of 90% of previous No Meat May participants being women. Men are significantly less likely to try plant-based options, and it is apparent that doubts about masculinity are at the root cause.

No Meat May co-founder Ryan Alexander explained, “Australian men are still being fed a lie that meat-eating makes them more masculine, when in reality, what’s more masculine than protecting the planet, sparing innocent lives and ensuring you live a long and healthy life for the people you love?”

What was perhaps the most ironic statistic was that 81% of men considered themselves someone who cares about the environment, yet when asked whether they would give up meat if it meant would reduce their impact on the environment, 79% said ‘no’.

This demonstrates the huge power that the media has in convincing men that they would lose their masculinity if they stopped eating meat. Moreover, it shows how much of a barrier it is to making more climate-positive choices.

Significant research over many years has shown that eating meat and other animal products increases the risk of developing certain cancers, heart disease, obesity and having a reduced life expectancy, not to mention being one of the biggest contributors to global warming and the destruction of our environment.

“Yet our survey alarmingly shows that Australian men are either not aware of any of these facts, don’t believe them, or simply don’t care,” Alexander continued.

This data is certainly worrying, not only for global public health but also for the impending climate crisis. It seems that we still have a long way to go in reversing the damage done by overwhelming toxic masculinity plugged by the mainstream media, which is why we need initiatives like No Meat May.

We hope that more men sign up this year, and give meat-free options a go whether it be for health, environmental, or animal welfare reasons!