Save the World! Go Green!We hear these words all the time. Now it's time to take the first step towards this. You have seen it, you have heard it all...now it's time to ACT!

Medha Journal is proud to introduce the first such event, along with the launch of two new sections -- The Medha Green and the Medha Contests section.

Having featured Barbara Sumner Burstyn and her excellent movie on Sustainable development, we started thinking...how can we make a difference. We aren't Environmental Scientists (well Mita is...but none of our other Medhavis have any background in this)...so how can WE make a difference.

That's when it struck us! We will ask you, Dear Medhavis...How can we make a difference?

Q. What do you have to do to enter "Save the Planet Contest"?

A. Write an essay on "Sustainable Communities". That's it!

As with "sustainable development", there is no single accepted definition of sustainable communities. Communities must define sustainability from a local perspective, much of the literature recognizes this.

One interpretation of a sustainable community is a settlement which:

• Has a stable, healthy population with a strong sense of place, history and global responsibility;
• Is empowered to guide an ecologically regulated economy based on the sustainable harvest and conservation of local natural resources;
• Gains fullest possible value from harvest and manufacturing of natural resources through use of locally controlled and appropriately adapted technologies;
• Has a collective ethic of conserving its culture and natural resources for future generations;
• Shares both its surplus production and culture with other communities and regions;
• Does not export pollution to other regions;
• Is committed to the goal of providing equal opportunity for a high quality of life for all residents of the community;
• Is a population which strives to continuously learn of its changing needs through the passage of time.

The building of sustainable communities requires sustainable community development, a community-based approach to development, which relies on self-help, community economic development, and ecological principles.

Click here to read more about the contest ...