Earth Day Feature
- Vijay Abiraj
- Apr 30
- 3 min read
Release Date: 30th April, 2025
Vastala Kristan John LLB (Honors) LPC (Commendation) & PgDip (Distinction)
CRJI USA Climate Education Committee Member
US Advisory Board Member
The Climate Crisis: Global futures at stake as the climate crisis continues to impede students’ right to an education.
“The futures of over one billion children are hanging by a thread – the time for urgent climate action is now. The world cannot be silent while children’s educational and learning opportunities at school or in their homes are transformed from safe havens for learning, into scenes of destruction and despair resulting from increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions.” Vastala Kristan John
Vastala Kristan John is a young Attorney-at-law, teacher, entrepreneur and renowned author known for the critical and innovative learning tools which includes text books and flashcards for children which she created working as a successful private tutor with a 100% pass rate. Her dedication to teaching and mentoring diverse cohorts of students using cutting edge, innovative materials and interactive mediums of learning have led to her success in academia as a teacher.Notably, it is her relentless commitment to ensuring every child has the right to an education which led to her joining CRJI given the inextricable link between the climate crisis and its impact on impeding the right to education. Additionally, Vastala consciously decided to support and work with CRJI having had several first hand experiences on how extreme weather events in the Eastern Caribbean region negatively impacted children's fundamental human rights including their right to an education, healthcare, their right to family, and their right to grow up in a clean and healthy environment.
As it relates to the intersectionality between the climate crisis and right to health, which in turn affects students’ learning, according to the World Health Organization, the global community is at a heightened risk of experiencing more pandemics as a result of the climate crisis. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic Vastala noted a significant downward learning trend in subjects as basic as reading, spelling and comprehension especially among students who neither had access to online learning platforms nor access to internet, also referred to as the “digital divide.”
Furthermore, the digital divide continues to negatively impact students' learning from low income households where students do not have access to devices such as laptops, tablets and cellphones or even access to internet connectivity. It is therefore not surprising, that in the aftermath of the Pandemic, UNICEF reported that 70% of 10 year old worldwide could not read simple text.Scientists have also noted with great concern that diseases such as malaria and dengue will become more easily transmissible and there are likely to be more infectious diseases, of which students in vulnerable island states are at increased risk of contracting which can result in a depleted quality of life and even death. There is no doubt that children’s education is in jeopardy but most of all, their quality of life and their ostensible right to live or to just be able to just play outside in clean air, is most at risk. Notably, this has informed her decision to become an integral part of CRJI.
Vastala stands as a pioneer among teachers, not only has she developed successful learning materials but also distributed key text books, flashcards and learning aides to the children in rural communities who are forced to remain at home due to the negative impacts of extreme weather conditions brought on by human caused climate change. However children living in vulnerable coastal regions, stand to lose if global temperatures continue to rise and sea level rise continues to be an existential threat to the life and liberty of all people living in communities most at risk.
The climate crisis is undoubtedly a risk multiplier for poverty which paves the way for undermining other basic rights. Vastala’s call for climate action this Earth Month is set out hereunder:
“As women, teachers and young adults, regardless of your field of expertise, we all must become agents of change especially in light of the imminent danger we are now facing on an almost daily basis as residents of vulnerable coastal regions. Where you live should not determine your quality of life and whether or not you have the right to live. We owe it to upcoming and future generations to act with urgency on taking climate action.”
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