ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the origins of the field known as “environmental education” in the calls from scientists in the 1960s for greater public awareness of the threat of environmental degradation. These environmental problems were often seen as scientific problems which science and technology could solve, but increasingly even the scientists themselves were arguing that science and technology were not enough. Environmental education was reoriented as education for sustainable development (ESD) at the 1992 UN Earth Summit and continues to be called this in UN documents. While the environment became less prominent in the UN agenda since 1992, the naming of the Anthropocene and the increasing threat of climate change have refocused attention on the importance of environmental education.
