Between the Inter-governmental Conference on Environmental Education at Tbilisi in 1977 and the Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education at Ahmedabad in 2007, our conception of the challenge posed by the global crises of climate change, environmental destruction, social disintegration, poverty, natural resources exhaustion and lately financial instability has evolved significantly. It has evolved, in fact, to the point at which there is a general consensus among education for sustainable development (ESD) practitioners and policymakers that we now understand what we need to do and can turn our attention to "getting on with the job". This article suggests that massive action programs may be premature because we still do not understand the nature of the challenge before us, not to mention what needs to be done to meet it. Only by examining the assumptions of our world view, preferably in facilitated groups, can we come to see clearly the "way forward". (Contains 7 notes.)