17/06/2025
Max Han, co-founder of Youths United For Earth and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, is reimagining climate advocacy by centring indigenous knowledge, youth participation, and decolonial perspectives. In this compelling profile, he reflects on the political risks of environmental work in Southeast Asia, the extractive legacies of colonialism, and the need for reparative climate justice. Han argues for a model of environmentalism grounded in solidarity rather than saviourism, where the voices of those most affected by environmental degradation are positioned at the forefront of policymaking.
Through work with ASEAN, he is helping to draft the region’s first environmental rights declaration—calling for legally recognised protections for environmental human rights defenders and the rights of indigenous communities. At Oxford, Han urges a reckoning with the colonial underpinnings of disciplines such as Geography and Conservation, and calls for deeper respect toward knowledge systems that have sustained ecological balance for centuries.
🖊️ Meira Lee
Read more at the link in the bio and on the website 🔗
