The paper considers the connections between the environmental crisis and patterns of consumption in the Western, and Westernised, worlds. These patterns are named as "malconsumption", a concept which is defined and then discussed in terms of its importance to the work of environmental educators. Malconsumption as a means of "meaning-making" and of countering "the empty self", and as a consequence of the activities of the advertising and other industries is explained. The paper closes with a summary of the orientation and activities associated with the practice of permaculture, and a proposition that a consideration of this practice in environmental education might contribute to a countering of the drive towards malconsumption.