ABSTRACT
Once upon a time there was no difficulty about environmental education. For our hunter-gatherer ancestors learning must have been essentially a three-fold process: developing the physical and mental capacities to survive in the conditions of their homeland; acquiring the habits, customs and collective memories that would allow them to be contributing members of a family or tribal group; acquiring the knowledge, understanding and skills to maintain a relationship with their surroundings and win from them the resources needed to lead a biologically sufficient life. Competence as an individual, as a member of a society, and as a dependent part of an ecological system were the ultimate objectives of learning, and success was measured by survival.
