Gianluca Grimalda, a climate researcher and environmental campaigner, intends to “slow travel” back to Europe from Bougainville off the coast of Papua Recent Guinea.
Gianluca Grimalda
Gianluca Grimalda was faced with a dilemma.
His employer, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a think tank based in Germany, ordered him at short notice to wrap up his fieldwork in Bougainville off the coast of Papua Recent Guinea within the southwestern Pacific and return to his desk — or lose his job.
The ultimatum effectively required Grimalda, a climate researcher and self-styled “slow traveler,” to promptly board a flight back to Europe.
He refused and was fired — but says he would make the identical decision again in a heartbeat.
Talking to CNBC from the distant province of East Recent Britain in Papua Recent Guinea, Grimalda said he began “slow traveling” about 13 years ago as a part of an try to be at peace with himself throughout the deepening climate crisis.
In practice, that meant flying as little as possible when attending international conferences and as a substitute prioritizing more sustainable methods of transport to scale back his environmental footprint.
In the present situation, I believe the really insane thing is to get on with business as usual since it is basically an abnormal situation.
Gianluca Grimalda
Climate researcher
Emissions from air travel are a major contributor to climate change and aviation is understood to be probably the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. Indeed, researchers have estimated that air travel accounts for about 4% of human-induced global warming.
“Even when coming here seven months ago I managed to slow travel only until Singapore, then I caught a plane since it was just inconceivable — as I do know now — to search out some type of different mode of transport from airplanes,” Grimalda said.
“I used to be really determined to return back entirely ‘no fly,’ partly for my very own moral commitment … but I also desired to send a powerful signal that in the present situation of progressive climate breakdown, it is rather vital that what we consider extraordinary actions change into increasingly normal.”
Grimalda said on Tuesday that he’d been stuck on a cargo ship in a compound in East Recent Britain for the past 10 days.
Nevertheless, he hoped to have the opportunity to resume his epic journey of 15,000 miles (24,140 kilometers) via overland routes from Friday. He plans to finally make it back to Europe across the second week of December.
Grimalda spent several months conducting fieldwork into the social impact of climate change on the island of Bougainville.
Gianluca Grimalda
On returning to Germany later this yr, Grimalda said, he intends to file a lawsuit against his former employer for illegal dismissal.
A spokesperson for the Kiel Institute for the World Economy told CNBC that the institute doesn’t comment on internal personnel matters in public.
“What’s public and obvious: Dr. Grimalda planned his trip to Papua with our support. We supported an earlier ‘slow travel’ trip to Papua by him before,” the spokesperson said, adding that the institute all the time supports its employees traveling in a climate-friendly way during business trips.
“We’re committed to do without air travel in Germany and in other EU countries so far as we will. If air travel is vital, we offer CO₂ compensation. We pay to Atmosfair to offset emissions through climate protection projects,” they added.
‘I believe it was the precise decision’
Grimalda’s slow journey home comes after several months conducting fieldwork into the social impact of climate change on the island of Bougainville. He said the completion of his research project had been delayed by a series of unforeseeable incidents, from “major security threats” to a volcanic eruption.
When asked how he felt about losing his job due to his refusal to fly, Grimalda said, “I believe it was a price price paying and it’s something I’d do again for at the very least three reasons.”
“Initially, I perceived this request by my institute as a type of moral and psychological blackmail and I believed that if I had given in to such a blackmail I’d have lost of my dignity. So, I actually didn’t want to offer in on that.”
“The second was that I had made a promise to all 1,800 participants in my research that I’d have made all the things possible to alleviate their suffering. These are folks that experience climate change on a each day basis,” he added, noting that the coastal communities he’d interacted with had been forced to relocate inland in light of the rising sea level.
“And eventually, I believed that in the long run this was a possibility that perhaps I needed to take because as a concerned climate scientist and anxious citizen for the climate breakdown, I actually am trying all the things possible.”
Grimalda said losing his job wasn’t the tip of the world and suggested it might as a substitute be a “sign of fate” to do something else.
“So, I said, I’ll take this gamble. Possibly that is the possibility that I can really persuade the most important variety of folks that I could ever speak with that we actually need to vary the course of our motion as urgently as possible,” he said.
“In the present situation, I believe the really insane thing is to get on with business as usual since it is basically an abnormal situation. I have to do what I can to essentially sound this alarm as strongly as possible, so this is the reason I even have made this decision. I believe it was the precise decision.”