I remember when Mandy Henk introduced me to Chris Shaw’s Liberalism and The Challenge of Climate Change. I admit, I was unfamiliar with his book, even though I am familiar with the global warming misinformation watchdog DeSmog, of which he is a director. I was giving a class on geoengineering for her climate disinformation course, and I was impressed by what he says about the inadequacy of our political order for addressing climate change.
Chris begins his book by reminding us of the difference between what you can read in the scientific reports of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and what gets translated into international climate policy. He tells us that in 2022 the IPCC concluded that;
“targeting a climate resilient, sustainable world involves fundamental changes to how society functions, including changes to underlying values, world-views, ideologies, social structures, political and economic systems, and power relationships.”
Given what makes it into their summaries for policy makers, and the international resolutions made at the Conferences of the Parties (COPs), some people may be surprised to learn that at least some scientists writing for the IPCC consider such profound societal transformation as necessary. Afterall, the technocratic language of decarbonization, emissions reductions, and Net Zero targets is much more common; all framed to suggest that we need not abandon the system that produced the crisis, but can instead just make some corrective tweaks.
For Chris Shaw though, the last 30 years have already demonstrated an inability to reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming. So he asks why it’s so difficult to think outside the box of the liberal political order that sets the parameters for climate policy-making. As he puts it: "Our ideological satnav is broken, it has only one destination programmed into it and no one can work out how to put in a different destination”. I think this takes us to the heart of our contemporary predicament: the business-as-usual constraints under which climate (and other) policy is made, and their utter inadequacy at a time when we are already experiencing climate breakdown (and other global ecological crises).
This brings me to The Dark Times Academy- an exciting new community education initiative launching at 7pm on July 31. This event will feature Chris Shaw talking about the problems of liberalism and climate change. You can sign up for the launch event here: https://dark-times-academy-launch-event-with-chris-shaw.lilregie.com/booking/attendees/new
But there’s more! As well as Chris Shaw, Dark Times Academy course leaders will also be there to talk about their new courses, including myself. I’ll be launching a course called:
Future thriving: Biophysical limits, systemic risks, and meeting the challenge of post-growth transition. This course is all about understanding planetary limits, the risks our destabilising activities produce, and how we can transition our social and economic systems for a better future. It’s about remaking the economy to meet our needs within environmental limits. It’s about increasing our resilience so that we can thrive in challenging times, and it’s about empowering students to take a meaningful role promoting change in their lives and communities.
The Future Thriving course is supported by Degrowth Aotearoa New Zealand (DANZ), part of an
emerging global network committed to resetting our ‘ideological satnav’ with new values, plans, and priorities for a viable future. You can sign up for the Future Thriving course here: https://futurethriving.lilregie.com