Note: Intro -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- Introduction: The Emotional Burdens of Global Environmental Change -- Theoretical Approach to Understanding Local and Global Changes -- The Plan for the Book -- 2 Meta-Narratives of Environmental Reform -- Introduction -- Theoretical Points of Departure -- 1. Modular Succession and Defensive Environmentalists -- 2. Focusing Events, Altruistic Environmentalists, and Environmental Reforms in Tightly Coupled Natural and Human Systems -- Meta-Narratives of Reform: Structures and Processes -- Theorizing Macro-Environmental Reform: A Polycentric, Multiphasic Approach -- Next Steps -- 3 Globalization, Tight Coupling, and Cascading Events -- Introduction: Globalization and the Human Prospect -- The Drivers2 -- Population Changes -- Global Capitalism -- Globalization, Tight Coupling, and Cascading Events -- Biofuels: Two Chain Reactions -- Climate Change and Cascading Events on Local and Global Scales -- Conclusion -- 4 Partitioning Resources, Preserving Resources? -- Introduction -- The Historical Expansion of Partitioned Natural Resources -- Conserving Partitioned Natural Resources: The Theories -- Corporations, States, and Catalyzing Events in Resource-Rich and Degraded Places -- Partitioning Resource-Rich Places: Three Case Studies -- 1. Suburbanization and Land-Use Controls in an Affluent Society -- 2. Globalization and the Expansion of Parks and Indigenous Reserves in Tropical Forests -- 3. Partitioning the Seas and Fisheries Conservation -- Partitioning Degraded Places: Two Case Studies -- 1. Community Forests -- 2. Farm Forests -- Conclusion -- 5 Advantaging Offspring, Limiting Offspring -- Introduction: Costs of Children, Defensive Environmentalists, and Population Declines -- Fertility Declines and the Costs of Children. , 1. Patterns of Decline -- 2. Explanations for the Decline -- Countervailing Trends: Urbanization, Aging Populations, and Declining Household Sizes -- Projecting Changes in the Human Population -- Conclusion: Defensive Environmentalist Practices and Population Declines in Affluent Societies -- 6 Choosing Foods, Saving Soils -- Introduction -- Defensive Environmentalist Rationales for Food Choices and Farming Techniques -- The Spread of Alternative Agricultures: An Historical Account -- Organic Agriculture -- Conservation Agriculture -- What Has Driven the Conversions to Alternative Agricultural Practices? -- Organic Foods, Organic Agriculture, and Farmers' Markets -- Conservation Agricultures -- Alternative Agriculture: A Social Movement with Transformative Potential? -- 7 Removing Rubbish, Recovering Resources, Creating Inequalities -- Introduction -- Waste, Urbanization, and the Rise of Recycling: Historical Patterns -- 1. One American Suburbs Solid Waste and Recycling Story -- 2. International Patterns -- 3. Global Dynamics in Resource Recovery -- The Driving Forces Behind Recycling -- Environmental Inequalities and the Environmental Justice Movement -- Conclusion: Resource Recovery in Historical Perspective -- 8 Saving Money, Conserving Energy -- Introduction -- Jevons Paradox: Global Trends in Energy Efficiency and Energy Consumption -- Same Old, Same Old: Real Estate Developers, Communities of Practice, and a Continuing Reliance on Fossil Fuels -- Globalization, Moments of Ecological Modernization, and Defensive Environmental Practices -- Conclusion: Production, Pollution, and Defensive Environmentalist Practices in China -- 9 Focusing Events, Altruistic Environmentalists, and the Environmental Movement -- Introduction: What Are Focusing Events? -- Focusing Events, Common Fate, and Altruistic Environmentalists. , The Big Bang Theory of Environmental Reform -- The Local (Defensive) and Global (Altruistic) Environmental Dynamic -- Hurricane Katrina and the Wal-Mart Sustainability Initiative -- Conclusion: Focusing Events and the Historical Accumulation of Defensive Environmentalist Practices -- 10 A Sustainable Development State? -- Introduction -- The East Asian Developmental State: A Model for the Sustainable Development State? -- The Link between Brazils Domestic and International Environmental Politics: Deforestation and a Global Forest Compact -- 11 Conclusion -- The Argument -- Questions for Further Research -- References -- Index.