The purpose of the essay was to investigate whether the teaching of history in compulsory school should include environmental history. For this assessment an analysis was compiled researching six national and international steering documents. The school law, curriculum and course syllabus for history was analyzed. Also three international documents that form the basis for the curriculum were analyzed. The analysis was made from a perspective where history consciousness , in the context of preparedness for the future, was in the centre. The analysis was conducted in a shape of ideas analysis, where the occurrence of two ideas were investigated, partly if environmental history/environmental perspective should be a part of history teaching, and partly if teaching creates preparedness of action for the future. Furthermore, a comparison between the different level steering documents was made. The results showed that two documents don’t accentuate the ideas at all. The collected evaluation is that the steering documents for the later years of compulsory school prescribe that the teaching of history should contain an environmental perspective. It is clearly stated that teaching should create preparedness for the future, and it is expressed that an environmental perspective can create preparedness for the future. It is not prescribed that environmental history should be included in the teaching. The comparison between the steering documents at the different levels showed that the national steering documents are prescriptive and the international steering documents are requesting and recommending. The curriculum has however captured the intentions of the international governing documents.