Programs designed to promote the use of natural environments for leisure purposes need to be based on a sound and justifiable environmental ethic. This paper attempts to develop such an ethic. The general and basic ecological attitude, arguments relating to the need for human survival, other arguments which relate to human interests such as the need for beauty, recreation and scientific endeavours and utilitarian arguments relating to the needs of future generations are examined and are seen as being morally and practically inadequate.

The only justifiable environmental ethic is seen as one which has. as its central concept, the interdependent natural community in which the interests of all individual members of the community (including the interests of human beings) are regarded as secondary to the good of the total community. In the ethic, humans protect the natural environment because the entities of nature are “fellow-travellers”, members of the same moral community.

Land degradation through erosion and salinity is Australia's most urgent environmental problem.

Despite the extent and rate of land deterioration, it is not a political issue and has no lobby. Solution to the problem lies in education, incentives and regulations, each in their appropriate role.

Basically Australia needs a fundamental change in attitude toward the land based on land ethics. Fifteen specific concepts are recommended for teaching in schools to encourage a sustainable ecological basis for rural production.

The author challenges environmental educators to recognize and pursue the need for land ethics as the cornerstone of Australia's soil conservation campaign and points out that, without a fundamental change of heart leading to greater respect and humility toward the land, neither laws or finances will reverse the present deteriorating situation on the land.

In 1980-81 when I last wrote about the future of environmental education in Australian schools I was quite pessimistic and concluded that environmental education had been a phenomenon of the affluent seventies in Australia. This conclusion was based on observations, reading and experience with schools, education authorities and curriculum projects over the preceding seven years.

Environmental education aims to develop not only awareness, understanding and skills. Most importantly, it also aims to encourage feelings of concern for the environment and protection. This means that it is concerned with social reconstruction — environmental education programs must have moral and political components if they are to achieve the accepted aims of environmental education. In 1980-81 I argued that environmental education had been subjected to incorporation within the existing hegemoney of schools in a neutralised form — the radical ‘action’ components of the environmental education aims had been deleted from school programs whilst the less controversial cognitive and skill aims had been retained, together with the name ‘environmental education’. There was evidence that programs of this genre had increased during the seventies, including an increased environmental content in traditional subjects in the curriculum. In general terms there was little inducement for schools to implement all the aims of environmental education.

Environmental work deals in the most depressing of statistics — measures of damage to our planet and measures of apparent incapacity to change them. Years working to bring about changes in the way people deal with their environment can be very frustrating and ultimately debilitating. Some aspects of personal frustration and the despair it leads to are examined. The most advanced tools used by environmental scientists such as systems theory are themselves shown to be a source of frustration. A principal source of despair is shown to be frustrated expectations based on faulty world views.

Suggestions toward resolving this outcome of concern are made. They involve personal work toward changing the expectations we have of our tools and the way we deal with reality. Evidence for the efficacy of such suggestions is taken from General System Theory itself. Deep Ecology and interpretations of twentieth century physics.

Social and environmental education are two sides of a coin. Each has similar student-centred goals that see an understanding of society or the environment and one's place within it as a medium for achieving some of the long term goals of education. The similarities between the two have not been recognised nearly as much as they could have been, though Disinger (1982) among others has recognized international, global, futures, population and values education (all long established themes in social education) as imperatives in environmental education. Both social and environmental education seek to help young people identify, understand and desire to resolve the problems that confront humanity.