This study contends that environmental education is being significantly altered by globalizing forces, witnessing the effort to convert environmental education into education for sustainable development. This internationally propagated conversion can be challenged from many vantage points. This study identifies anomalies that have arisen as international organizations such as UNESCO have championed this conversion, and discusses issues arising from these anomalies in light of the nature and purposes of education. This study presents a heuristic that has helped one to support a better understanding of the relationships between sustainable development, environmental thought, democracy, and education. (Contains 2 figures and 7 notes.)