ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in this book. The book examines public representations of the two degree dangerous limit, predominantly focusing on the UK, and drawing the majority of its material from public discourses around the time of the Copenhagen conference in 2009. The reporting of the Copenhagen conference demonstrates that the news media rely on the opinions of powerful institutional actors to provide the authoritative interpretation of climate change science. The news reports and other commentaries analysed use the two degree idea as a frame to then validate particular understandings of what sort of problem climate change is. The construction of environmental problems is a diachronic, synchronic and multitudinous performance, involving a range of actors, a variety of sites and an extended timeline. Dryzek's four categories of environmental discourse: survivalism, environmental problem solving, reformism, and green radicalism. Reformist discourses are aligned with the goals of sustainability and ecological modernity, which eschew ideas of limits.
