Growing up was confusing and sometimes difficult for me. I went through all of the typical ‘growing up’ things- puberty, first crushes, college apps. But it wasn’t just that.  I was one of the only Malaysians in my international school (located in Malaysia). I was told that studying environmental studies was a ‘Western’ thing for me to do, and that I was betraying my Asian lawyer side in pursuing it. I was told that because I was a woman and Chinese, I would never be able to make large scale changes for Malaysian environmental policy.

My identities were fluid, with the different aspects of my life— race, gender, privilege— seeming to both conflict and connect with one another, sometimes against society’s problems and sometimes not.  And I couldn’t wrap my head around that.

Then I came across the term ‘intersectional environmentalism’ (IE), coined by Black environmental activist Leah Thomas. IE recognises the conflicting and connected identities in people across all kinds of injustice. It recognises how climate change is experienced  by people facing different social injustices in different ways. It is feminism, not because it centers women, but because it aims for equity and justice, especially for people most affected by climate change. When I came across IE for the first time, I felt like I had something to describe my conflicting experiences that were not solely about my womanhood, or my Asian-ness, or the fact that I don’t always identify first with ‘woman’ or ‘Asian’, but person/competitor, and Southeast Asian.

The IE movement, inspired by Leah Thomas’ definition, has gained momentum in  recent years. Younger generations particularly love it, because of its focus on environmental justice and intersectionality. It allows people to understand the many discriminated-against  identities that they have– Black, queer, poor, woman, and more. It also makes green/environmental spaces a more welcoming place for people with these identities.

I’m excited to learn about other peoples’ intersectional experiences— about how they relate to IE, and their relationship with the climate crisis. I’ll explore topics like: what intersectional environmentalism looks like for people of color in traditionally white outdoor spaces, how intersectional environmentalism succeeds where feminism fails, intersectional environmentalism as a growing area of academic inquiry , and examine intersectional environmental  movements around the world.