Environmental education is more focused on the pedagogical aspects of understanding and acting upon environmental issues. It's about fostering awareness, knowledge, skills, and values related to environmental issues, leading to responsible behavior. This includes various components of the environment (ecological, social, economic, political), but the emphasis is on learning and action rather than comprehensive scientific study.
A holistic study of the total environment would be much broader and more encompassing, likely including disciplines like ecology, geology, climatology, sociology, economics, and political science in a highly integrated way. Environmental education would be *one component* of that holistic study, the part focused on teaching and learning about it.