Abstract
Environmental education (EE) is going through a critical stage. The wide acceptance of education for sustainable development (ESD) as a reference guiding the educational response to the environmental crisis has strengthened the critical views of EE. This article tries to refute the arguments put forward by those who criticize EE and advocate its ‘substitution’ by ESD. The article points out the theoretical weaknesses and the political and ideological bias of the notion of ‘sustainable development and sets these against the rich historical development of EE. In this approach, ESD is shown to offer no original responses to the challenges of the environmental crisis and of development. The author admits that ESD may be one of the options in the multi-paradigmatic essence attributed to EE, but believes that other interpretations of educational action are coherent with a view of society which is equally sustainable, but which is at the same time oriented towards the attainment of justice and equity today and in the future of mankind.