The Influence Of Environmental Education

Sustainable Development (SD) is a well-recognized concept throughout the World. This concept has been the subject of discussion since the Brundland Report titled “Our Common Future” during the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 (Drexhage & Murphy, 2010). It was during this conference that the need for Rio’s Earth Summit was identified which took place in Rio de Jenario, Brazil in 1992. The main focus of this summit was to address pressing issues facing the world at the time and to prepare the world for the future (UN, 1992). SD was later addressed at a global level during the World Summit on Sustainable Development that took place in Johannesburg in the year 2002. During this summit different countries revisited

The traditional thinking of EE is that the human behaviour can be influenced or changed by making people more knowledgeable about the environment and its associated issues, in so doing, motivating them to act towards the environment in a more responsible ways (Hungerford & Volk, 1990). Figure 1 illustrates the transition or link between knowledge, attitude and action during an EE course. According to Ogilvie, 2012, Environmental education aims at producing citizens that are knowledgeable concerning the biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of how to help solve these problems, and motivated to work towards their

For an individual to have this awereness, there are a number of components such as cognitive, knowledge-based and perception-based components. Environmental awareness leads to sensitivity towards the environment which influences behaviour and decision making.

Enviro-crisis

According to Hungerfold and Volk, 1990, education aims at shapping human behavior which means that the education systems throughout the world were established in order to develop citizens that will develop in desirable ways. Being Environmental literate means having the capacity to perceive and interpret the relative health of the environmental systems and to take appropriate decisions and actions to restore, maintain and improve the health of those systems(Ogilvie, 2012). Some of the EE principles include:

1. To examine major environmental issues from local, national, regional and international points of view so that students receive insights into environmental conditions in other geographical areas;

2. Help learners discover the symptoms and real causes of environmental problems;

3. Focus on current and potential environmental situations while taking into account the historical