Dr Gianluca Grimalda was sent to the Soloman Islands to study the effects of climate change – but now he risks losing his job as he refuses to travel home by plane.
Experimental Economist Dr Grimalda has spent the last six months doing fieldwork on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands archipelago, observing the tactics locals use to adapt to higher sea levels such as makeshift walls.
An environmental campaigner, Dr Grimalda refuses to travel by plane – even after his employer, Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, gave him until today to come home.
Dr Grimalda told Moncrieff he initially travelled to the island via slow travel such as trains, ferries and cargo ships.
“It took me 35 days to come here,” he said.
Dr Grimalda was supposed to be in Germany on September 10th, but his research project was delayed.
“The main reason why my work took longer was that we were the subjects of criminal attacks,” he said.
“Armed ex-combatants stopped our convoy once when we were coming down from a mountain and demanded all my belongings.
"It prevented us visiting some villages.”
My #SlowTravel from Germany🇩🇪 to PNG🇵🇬 for fieldwork research has started.I plan to travel 39,000km on land and sea rather than✈️ to reduce my carbon footprint. My trip will reduce CO2 by 6,7tons compared to✈️-albeit still emitting 2,7tons. Here you can follow daily updates. 1/🧵 pic.twitter.com/3akG7FxTs6
— gianluca grimalda (@GGrimalda) February 16, 2023
Following delays, Dr Grimalda’s employers told him to get to Germany this week, but he is sticking with his plans to slow travel.
Dr Grimalda assumed he would have an “automatic extension” to return home from the institute to allow him to finish his research and slow travel home.
“Probably there was some miscommunication failure – I did not inform the people I was working for,” he said.
“I can see that they are unhappy with me taking such a long time, but I find this type of punishment draconian.
“Losing my job seems really like an extraordinary punishment for someone who, in the end, just wanted to limit his carbon footprint in a climate breakdown.”
'Maybe they're thinking their stance'
Dr Grimalda feels he is stuck in “limbo” as he waits to hear from his employers.
“I received the first warning to be in Kiel last Monday, and then I was expecting a second warning, but that didn’t come.
“My family has not been paid for September – I had requested my institute to pay my family for September, but nothing has happened so far.
“In practice, I think I’m already fired, but it could be that they’re as surprised as me having looked at the planetary attention my story has generated.
“Maybe they’re rethinking their stance.”
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