The basics of education for environmentally responsible behaviour

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Among the various global problems, environmental protection issues have come to the fore. Problems related to this area frequently call for being considered within the process of education. Recurrent conferences, bringing together experts from various fields of science, politicians, and even activists, clearly illustrate the fact that the issue of environmental protection is invariably topical, and should thus be permanently present in the mind of the average person. The environment is an area of manifold human activities, and it requires taking appropriate protective measures. Moreover, its specific elements are linked in close relationships and interdependencies. Therefore, the question whether raising awareness, which is so strongly reliant on education, shapes appropriate attitudes, allowing individuals to act in the social and natural environment, seems to be of much relevance, today. A group of various values compels us to show and promote the importance of ecological values, including the value of responsibility. Those values provide the basis and measure of the change in human attitude towards the social and natural environment, which unfortunately, has taken a one-dimensional form, namely, that of exploiting nature’s resources.
 The article presents the justification for taking into account proposals of environmental ethics in the educational process. It seems that they can provide the basis for shaping responsible human behaviour, expressed, among others, in mature awareness of the need to protect the environment.