摘要：Environmentally beneficial actions come in diverse forms and occur in a wide range ofsettings ranging from personal decisions in households to negotiated agreements between nations. Thisarticle draws upon both social and ecological theory to outline, theoretically, the circumstances in whichlocalized actions, undertaken by citizens, should cumulate to have global effects. The beliefs behind theseactions 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 globalenvironment. Defensive environmental actions such as creating common property institutions, limitingfertility, reducing waste streams, using energy efficient technologies, and eating organic foods havecumulative effects whereas altruistic environmental action often occurs through threshold crossingsfollowing a focusing event. Defensive environmentalism expedites altruistic environmentalism bypersuading 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 statethat would promote additional defensive and altruistic environmental actions
