Christopher Shaw – författare

In this book Christopher Shaw analyses how liberalism has shaped our understanding of climate change and how liberalism is legitimated in the face of a crisis for which liberalism has no answers.

The language and symbolism we use to make sense of climate change arose in the post-World War II liberal institutions of the West. This language and symbolism, in neutralising the philosophical and ideological challenge climate change poses to the legitimacy of free market liberalism, has also closed off the possibility of imagining a different kind of future for humanity. The book is structured around a repurposing of the ‘guardrail’ concept, commonly used in climate science narratives to communicate the boundary between safe and dangerous climate change. Five discursive ‘guardrails’ are identified, which define a boundary between safe and dangerous ideas about how to respond to climate change. The theoretical treatment of these issues is complemented with data from interviews with opinion-formers, decision-makers and campaigners, exploring what models of human nature and political possibilities guide their approach to the politics of climate change governance.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, liberal politics, environmental communication and environmental politics and philosophy, in general.

In this book Christopher Shaw analyses how liberalism has shaped our understanding of climate change and how liberalism is legitimated in the face of a crisis for which liberalism has no answers.

The language and symbolism we use to make sense of climate change arose in the post-World War II liberal institutions of the West. This language and symbolism, in neutralising the philosophical and ideological challenge climate change poses to the legitimacy of free market liberalism, has also closed off the possibility of imagining a different kind of future for humanity. The book is structured around a repurposing of the ‘guardrail’ concept, commonly used in climate science narratives to communicate the boundary between safe and dangerous climate change. Five discursive ‘guardrails’ are identified, which define a boundary between safe and dangerous ideas about how to respond to climate change. The theoretical treatment of these issues is complemented with data from interviews with opinion-formers, decision-makers and campaigners, exploring what models of human nature and political possibilities guide their approach to the politics of climate change governance.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, liberal politics, environmental communication and environmental politics and philosophy, in general.

This book is about the history, present and future of one the most important policy ideas of the modern era – that there is a single, global dangerous amount of climate change. That dangerous amount of climate change is imagined as two degrees centigrade of global warming above the pre-industrial average. Though the two degree idea is based on the value system of elite policy actors, it is been constructed in public discourses as scientific fact. This false representation of the concept undermines opportunities for positive public engagement with the climate policy debate, yet it is strong public engagement which is a recurring aspiration of climate policy discourses and is considered essential if climate mitigation strategies are to work.

Alongside a critical analysis of how the idea of a single dangerous limit has shaped our understanding of what sort of problem climate change is, the book explains how the public have been kept out of that decision making process, the implications of this marginalisation for climate policy and why the dangerous limit idea is undermining our ability to mitigate climate change. The book concludes by exploring possibilities for a deliberation about the future of the two degree limit which allows for public participation in the decision making process. This book illustrates why, at this critical juncture in the climate policy debate, the two degree limit idea has failed to achieve any of the policy goals intended.

This is the first book dedicated to questioning the issue of the two degree limit within a social science framework and should be of interest to students and scholars of environmental policy and politics, climate change communication, and science, technology and society studies.

This book is about the history, present and future of one the most important policy ideas of the modern era – that there is a single, global dangerous amount of climate change. That dangerous amount of climate change is imagined as two degrees centigrade of global warming above the pre-industrial average. Though the two degree idea is based on the value system of elite policy actors, it is been constructed in public discourses as scientific fact. This false representation of the concept undermines opportunities for positive public engagement with the climate policy debate, yet it is strong public engagement which is a recurring aspiration of climate policy discourses and is considered essential if climate mitigation strategies are to work.

Alongside a critical analysis of how the idea of a single dangerous limit has shaped our understanding of what sort of problem climate change is, the book explains how the public have been kept out of that decision making process, the implications of this marginalisation for climate policy and why the dangerous limit idea is undermining our ability to mitigate climate change. The book concludes by exploring possibilities for a deliberation about the future of the two degree limit which allows for public participation in the decision making process. This book illustrates why, at this critical juncture in the climate policy debate, the two degree limit idea has failed to achieve any of the policy goals intended.

This is the first book dedicated to questioning the issue of the two degree limit within a social science framework and should be of interest to students and scholars of environmental policy and politics, climate change communication, and science, technology and society studies.

¿Cómo llega alguien a ser un verdadero, apasionado e intrépido seguidor de Cristo?

La cultura en la que estamos inmersos nos ha convencido de que, con esfuerzo y dedicación, podemos impulsar nuestro propio crecimiento. Incontables libros, seminarios, talleres y cursos nos seducen con alguna fórmula segura para lograr cambios. La propuesta de Jesús a sus discípulos, sin embargo, es enteramente diferente. Es una invitación a caminar juntos por la vida.

En Vida por contagio, Christopher Shaw nos enseña cómo se produce, en el marco de esa relación con Cristo, un milagro: un misterioso proceso por el que uno comienza a ser parecido a Él. Uno cambia, sin haberse propuesto cambiar, porque pasa mucho tiempo con el Único que nos puede cambiar. En esa sencilla ecuación encontramos la clave de la transformación. Y nos ayuda a entender por qué el ser consumidores de experiencias religiosas nunca nos cambiará:

Porque solamente aquellos que viven perdidamente enamorados de Dios acaban teniendo un corazón parecido al de él.

How does one become a true, passionate, and intrepid follower of Christ?

The culture in which we’re immersed has convinced us that, with enough effort and dedication, we can set our own growth in motion. Countless books, seminars, workshops, and courses entice us with some formula to achieve change. What Jesus proposes to his disciples, however, is something else entirely. It’s an invitation to walk through life together.

In Living Contagious Lives, Christopher Shaw teaches us how, in the context of that relationship with Christ, a miracle takes place: a mysterious process through which one begins to resemble him. You change, without having set out to change, because you spend a lot of time with the One who can change us. It’s in that simple equation that we find the key to transformation. And it helps us understand why being consumers of religious experiences will never change us:

Because only those who live hopelessly in love with God have a heart like his in the end.