I’ve had three mid-life crises, two Damascene conversions and four dozen Big Ideas in the last few years. The doctors, rightly, call it bipolar disorder, and I have a fairly healthy willingness to being told I’m wrong, or to change direction when a wall approaches.

But two Big Ideas in the last couple of years have come and stayed. The first is WorkSnug, a company I’ve formed and which is doing well. I’m very proud of it, but you can read about that elsewhere.

The second Big Idea isn’t my idea at all, I’m just one of many millions who’ve heard the mood music, thought it through and concluded that man-made climate change is an immediate and existential threat, demanding radical economic, political and societal change. The alternative is death on a Malthusian scale, poor people first. Millions of us think like that. We’re changing our lifestyles and attempting to change politics.

So what? So I’m standing as a candidate for the Green Party in the local elections on May 6^th. It’s a symbolic thing and I won’t win. The Green Party has a drive to at least have a name on as many ballot papers as possible, and their request came at a time when I was trying to work out how I can work towards the societal change I want to see. Standing to get on the council isn’t it by the way, but it’s a fun, vaguely egotistical step in the right direction.

I’m not actually a member of the Green Party, nor do I plan on joining. I’ve scanned their website and saw nothing offensive. I haven’t read a manifesto. They’re clearly a party of the left, and my political instincts are all left of centre, but it can’t truthfully be said that I’m standing on a Green Party ticket. My take, and I suppose it would be my doorstep pitch if I do any canvassing, is that now is the time to protest, and Green is the best protest vote.

The Copenhagen climate talks saw nothing binding, the media (such as a unitary thing called the media actually exists) has hyped up small-scale chicanery at UAE to such a point that climate-change denial in the UK is mainstream again. Politicians who oversaw the boom and bust are busily trying to rebuild using the same old mechanisms (growth, consumption, aspiration, debt) which helped bring us to the brink of climate chaos. We’re in the midst of two pre-emptive wars, one of which may have been illegal. The British National Party is on the rise, reflective of a second-tier working class politics which isn’t heard at Westminster, but which has mainstream currency in towns up and down the country. Things aren’t good. Protest and vote Green. If you happen to live in Whitechapel, East London, vote for me.

It’s different on a national level. The next Prime Minister will be Tweedledum or Tweedledee. On balance I guess I’d prefer TweedleGordon, and for what it’s worth, while I’m on my soapbox, I would probably encourage readers to vote Labour in the General Election. For all the flaws of this government, and they are many and huge, I can’t see that any centre-right Conservative government will ever intervene in a business versus climate conflict. Ideological free market instincts are dangerous as our planet warms. Things aren’t good, but hold your nose and vote Labour again.

So far so tactical. What about positive solutions? A vision? The truth is that I don’t really have one. Nothing coherent. I have an eye on the scale of the problem, which I voiced here in an open letter to the G20, and some sweeping statements in that letter, outlining a new approach:

…the market is based on growth, consumption, aspiration and often (though not always) greed. But there’s a problem with this. The world’s ecology can’t afford for those aspiring to Western levels of consumption to ever get there. Half the world survives on less than $2 daily, living in conditions which should shame G20 leaders. The affluent other half consumes many multiples more resources than they do. Given that today’s status quo has brought us to the brink of environmental disaster, we shouldn’t pretend that we can afford for them to become like us. This sounds horribly paternalistic, but I can’t think of another way to put it.

It seems to me that the developing world is crying out for social justice, adequate healthcare, housing, women’s rights, representative government and so on. You owe it humanity to play your part in achieving this. Pursuit of consumption levels to match our own won’t work, that will lead to environmental disaster and an extension of the affluenza epidemic. We’re selling them a pup if we pretend they’ll be happy in a society like ours. What Oliver James calls selfish capitalism is toxic; it makes us depressed. It’s no coincidence that the world financial centres of London and New York are also amongst the most depressed cities on earth.

A word on the free market. In setting it free it has run amok. We elect governments to represent the people’s interests. It’s in the people’s interests to reign in the worst excesses of the free market. As an example let’s look at the oil industry. It isn’t evil, it’s searching for more oil, pursuing growth and profit in the way companies are supposed to. But the environment can’t handle it, and notions of social justice are put aside when protecting oil interests in countries such as Saudi Arabia. This is where governments need to intervene, developing policies which protect the greater good. This isn’t about left Vs right, little Vs big government. It’s about ensuring the species survives.

So we need something else from you. A new capitalism, resting on the twin pillars of social justice in the developing world (and elsewhere where it’s lacking) and climate responsibility in the developed world. It’s difficult to describe what that might look like as we’ve barely even begun to acknowledge the need, but make no mistake: The future of humanity depends on your ability to deliver it.

What about my ability to deliver in local politics? Putting aside the fact that I won’t win there is the small matter of my own personal weaknesses. I have no grasp of local issues, and am only really interested in bigger picture geopolitical stuff. I couldn’t sort out planning regulations or tackle the litter problem. I’m not that interested. I’d be a horrible local counsellor. I know that the flip-side of my arguments is a return to localism, and I know that the Greens (and I think the Lib Dems) have much to say on that score. Not me though. I’ve got nothing to say on that score. But then, I’m not going to win.

So in short, in sum, in protest, in the absence of anything better, without much ambition in politics, for fun and because the New Economics Foundation aren’t a political party, I’m standing as a Green. Wish me luck.