ABSTRACT
The concept of citizenship as presently defined does not allow the dilemma to be overcome. Environmental issues, along with considerations about the nature of morality, ethics and absolute duties, could be the means by which the nature of citizenship is re-examined. Schools are now advised to consider air pollution, global warming, the destruction of the rainforests, the advance of deserts and the daily extinction of species. This guidance is similar to Bellamy's analysis as long as one remembers that they describe the symptoms of environmental decline, not the causes or consequences. Environmental deterioration throws considerable doubt on views that citizenship education should foster group loyalty and white, middle-class values, especially in black and poor white neighbourhoods or that market economy systems have proved to be the most efficient means of production. Societies are faced by political uncertainty, threats to environmental stability of increasingly serious consequences and the re-emergence of nationalistic aspirations.
