This paper is an attempt to review the state of environmental education from the viewpoint of one involved in international and national strategies for its development. It relates environment and education to the whole system of human environment relationships and sees environmental education not as a separable package but as a movement for fundamental educational reform, in a rapidly changing world under increasing stress both from human induced change and from human nature itself. Environmental education has grown through the promotion of innovative educational approaches and the increasing attention given to human aspects of the system. Some of these, notably the idea of sustainability, need further development and careful use. Much work is needed to bring environmental and social systems together into a single conceptual structure, and to keep the development clear of misconceptions which are none of its making, to tackle the global issues that challenge survival and yet to remain realistic and practicable within the system in which it must work.