A Comparative Study on the Development Status of Environmental Education in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia

Abstract

With the rapid development of the world economy, the global environment and development problems faced by mankind have become increasingly prominent. At the expense of the environment, people have created unprecedented material wealth and promoted the rapid development of the world’s material civilization. This leads to environmental deterioration, resource consumption, and serious ecological destruction. The realization of environmentally sustainable development has become a major issue of common concern for all mankind. Environmental education is a comprehensive lifelong education with the relationship between humans and the environment as the core. According to agenda 21, “education is the decisive factor in implementing sustainable development strategies and empowering people to solve environmental and development problems. Educational behavior plays an important role in sustainable development. Its main purpose is to train people to consciously protect the environment and care for the environment by using education. Environmental protection is an important part of sustainable development, and environmental education is the decisive factor to realize environmental protection. It arouses citizens’ awareness of environmental protection, improves the quality of the whole people’s environmental protection, and finally realizes sustainable development. his paper makes a comparative study on the development status of environmental education in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. By analyzing and discussing the current problems of environmental education, this paper tries to conclude the far-reaching significance of the future development of environmental education.