Alexis Rowell on Communities and Councils.

Alexis Rowell – 'Communities, Council and Carbon -what we can do if Governments won't'

Alexis Rowell had a tough time in local government. He spent four years of his life as an elected representative of the Liberal Democrats attempting to get Camden Council to make sustainability a way of life, and not just a tick box exercise.

I listen to him liken writing his new book to Joe Simpson's experience as described in 'Touching the Void'. I wonder if he felt like Joe, hanging suspended by a climbing rope after a fall from a remote mountain, or like his climbing partner Simon, who had to cut the rope to save at least one of their lives.

Like Joe, Alexis survived and like Joe, seems deeply affected by his experience. However, what I hear more clearly from his account is a pioneering spirit that will not allow him to give up. You would expect no less from a man who is willing to go entirely unprepared into a civil war to kick start his journalistic career as a corespondent, but still, it talks to a deeply woven thread I can see embroidered through the transition movement.

Alexis presents us with an optimisitic, if slightly battle scarred opinion that we can do it, indeed, that there are people out there doing it, and what they're doing is amazing. He also tells us that we're not alone, and that those pioneers among us have lessons to offer.

He suggests that he broke all of the rules of engagement when he was inside local government so that we don't have to. He broke the crockery and burnt bridges, he yelled about peak oil and climate change, and had people avoiding him in corridors. He's written it down so that we can evolve our approach and work more effectively.

What I hear is that you don't need to find a completely new path. What gives me hope when it all seems too much of a mountain to climb, is that communities are now at a stage where there's enough going on for us to take stock and regroup. The brave lead the way, finding the steep cliffs and the cravasses and taking the falls. They may be led by their own sense of urgency, or by more altruistic drivers, and sometimes even from a vantage point higher up the hill, what they're doing looks precarious. But as human beings, one of our redeeming features is the ability to learn and adapt accordingly.

I don't have the level of bravery that Alexis shows us (some of which he's willing to admit came from naivety) but I can see the value of learning from one another. After all, resilience is all about being able to bounce back with new or adapted ideas.

We're not all pioneers, and rightly so. It's lonely at the top of the mountain, but maybe seeing the swell behind you makes the journey worthwhile.