Why go into politics?

John Bird, founder and editor-in-chief of The Big Issue writes in this week's edition about why he got into politics. He said people responded: "Why would you want to enter a sewer?"

His reply was: "Why would you leave a sewer to turn into a bubonic plague? Wouldn't you want to clean the bloody thing up?"

As he goes onto say: "If politics needs change, it needs it now. It needs a different kind of politics - the politics of being engaged at every level of society."

Great stuff - and while I don't believe we are a sewer or at the bubonic plague stage - I've met a fair few committed and dedicated local councillors - yet even amongst them there is still a remarkable denial and complacency about how climate change and Peak Oil will effect our society. Witness the extraordinary advert I came across recently in a national paper encouraging people to take 5 holidays a year "for vitality" (4 of them flying)!! Something is deeply wrong with our society when we are trying to encourage this as good healthy behaviour - now don't get me on flights and how we all subsidies aviation......

As I've noted before the changes ahead mean that nothing short of a new human era is in the making. The choices we make now will determine whether the birthing is successful. We do indeed need more people to get into the 'sewer' to help sort it out!!