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Abstract:
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"Environmentally beneficial actions come in diverse forms and occur in a wide range of
settings ranging from personal decisions in households to negotiated agreements between nations. This
article draws upon both social and ecological theory to outline, theoretically, the circumstances in which
localized actions, undertaken by citizens, should cumulate to have global effects. The beliefs behind these
actions tend to be either ‘defensive environmentalism’ in which actors work to improve their personal,
local environments or ‘altruistic environmentalism’ in which actors work to improve the global
environment. Defensive environmental actions such as creating common property institutions, limiting
fertility, reducing waste streams, using energy efficient technologies, and eating organic foods have
cumulative effects whereas altruistic environmental action often occurs through threshold crossings
following a focusing event. Defensive environmentalism expedites altruistic environmentalism by
persuading politicians, after focusing events, that rank and file citizens really do want a regime change.
The resulting political transformation should, at least theoretically, create a sustainable development state
that would promote additional defensive and altruistic environmental actions."
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