What is sustainability? While world leaders and the United Nations debate the details, for many it is already a question of life and death: How will humanity survive the predicted changes in the global climate? What will become of the planet’s biodiversity? How will communities resist one of the largest land and resource rushes in history? Humanity is at a crossroads where movements to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems are meeting with struggles to resist development and business as usual. This series focuses on these converging efforts to preserve and create alternative economic, social and political models. From women’s groups organizing resilience to climate change, to grassroots mobilizations against environmentally destructive development, to indigenous communities preserving ancient ways of life, the future is already happening. Here IPS reporters are heading onto the front lines of the future, where struggles for social and environmental justice converge, to report on the world’s most sustainable communities and the challenges they face.