Environmental education is on the rise in universities around the world. Conventional explanations emphasize proximate needs and interests rooted in environmental degradation. We propose instead a top-down causal imagery, hinging on the expanded meaning, purpose, and comprehensibility of the human-nature relationship in world society. We test our view in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of environmental degree programs in a global sample of universities. Throughout, our explanation proves stronger than the alternative. Universities embrace environmental education as the substance and significance of the human-nature relationship grow in global institutions and as the relationship is increasingly deemed comprehensible within the knowledge framework. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure, and 16 footnotes.)