Teaching as Activism: Equity Meets Environmentalism

Luke Lawson is a teacher and administrator in Vancouver, B.C.

This collection of brief articles written mainly by feminist activists
and professors is ostensibly concerned with environmental issues and the
impact of global warning. In fact, the book might more accurately be
described as a sustained diatribe aimed at such familiar targets as
capitalism, colonial powers, the United States, and the military.

Teaching as Activism is full of sweeping statements, such as Vanaja
Dhruvarajan’s observation that “corporate globalization is
essentially the same as imperialism.” At one point, Linda Muzzin—one
of the book’s editors—makes the unsubstantiated claim that “much
of the scientific research that engages graduate students is directly or
indirectly of interest to U.S. national security, and … young
professionals are unwittingly drawn into this system which threatens
both social justice and the environment.”

What the contributors fail to understand is that those countries that
do embrace globalization, free trade, capitalism, and competition are
much better off than import-substitution countries.