Due to sea level rise brought on by climate change, students must wade through knee-deep water to get to school, and their classrooms are dangerous due to damage from prior extreme weather occurrences.
Neselinda Meta, general secretary of the Council of Pacific Education, presented a visual depiction of the contemporary consequences of climate change on Saturday, March 9, at the Federation’s Teachers for Climate Action Conference.
“Climate change is severely affecting small Pacific island states, impeding teachers’ rights to decent working conditions and students’ rights to quality education,” the speaker stated. Within the Pacific Ocean, a crisis that is silent is developing. Amid the gorgeous oceans and lush foliage of the Pacific, countries are gradually disappearing, with climate change ruining their basic existence.
Homes, land, plantations, churches, schools, hospitals, and cultural institutions are all being lost by people. They are losing their supplies of power, water, food, and resources for agriculture, as well as their stores of fish.
“Climate change is serious because people are dying from stronger and more frequent cyclones, flooding and bushfire. It is serious because people are being separated from their families; they are relocated away from their villages and their communities.”
Land is being washed away in the small, low-lying island states like Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Belize and the Congo. “Communities have been dispersed, people will continue to migrate, not only losing their identity in the process, but also their cultures and languages in the long run,” Ms Meta said.
“The right of life, liberty, personal security, access to education, healthcare, and decent living conditions are all fundamental rights and they are under threat,” she said, citing climate change as the most important labor issue because it indirectly affects a number of human rights issues.
She declared, “Climate justice is important for the future of the profession, our Pacific, our children, and our planet. That is why the Council of Pacific Education and unions are committed to it.”
“All teachers ought to have the resources and assistance they need to educate about climate change. This indicates that teachers receive professional development.
According to Ms. Meta, “climate change education has the power to shift the mindset in sustainable ways of living as well as prepare students, teachers, and unions for the transition to a low carbon economy.”
