Environmental education is an educational process, responsible for training individuals concerned with environmental problems and seeking the conservation and preservation of natural resources and sustainability, considering the theme in a holistic way, that is, addressing its economic, social, political aspects , ecological and ethical. Thus, it should not be confused with ecology, which is just one of the countless aspects related to the environmental issue. Therefore, talking about Environmental Education is talking about education adding a new dimension: the environmental dimension, contextualized and adapted to the interdisciplinary reality, linked to environmental and global themes.
> Currently, there are two main aspects of environmental education, critical and conservative:
- Conservative environmental education:
Conservative environmental education is the pioneer aspect of environmental education. Such a model is based on the individual and believes that the educational act is sufficient to generate changes in individual behaviors to reach a global change. In this regard, the current social order is not criticized. The human being is placed as a generic being removed from history and environmental degradation is a fruit of humanity. - Critical environmental education:
This aspect of environmental education originated from the desire for transformation from the socio-environmental crisis and aims at working with educational activities in a transversal and constructivist way.
From this perspective, individuals are able to act critically by recognizing themselves as part of the environment in which they live, thus being able to think of solutions to problems and give importance to them.