Situating ESD within the tension area between the need to address the urgent environmental problems and to support pluralistic learning, this article argues for the need to recognize that every type of education is instrumental. However, while the call for pluralistic learning promotes itself as objective-free; its tacit anthropocentric bias and hidden instrumentality in propagating neoliberal values need to be critically examined. ESD literature tends to be concerned with the rights of disadvantaged human groups, entangled with notions of economic development. However, development enterprise has also globally exported unsustainable practices and disregard for non-human species. While it is difficult to suggest that anyone should be prevented from enjoying the material benefits that these practices allow, there remains a thorny question as to whether anyone has the right to prioritize their own interests to the extent that those of the non-human are deemed expendable. Non-human species do not profit from the assumed ‘plurality’ of perspectives that currently dominate ESD since these perspectives are largely informed by the ideology of economic equality and social justice. This article will argue for a bolder move in the direction of eco-representation and reinstatement of education for nature.