Essay by Eric Worrall
But apparently has not dampened your enthusiasm for playing white saviour.
Refusing to fly has lost me my job as a climate researcher. It’s a price worth paying
My company in Germany has demanded my swift return from climate-change fieldwork near Papua New Guinea. I can’t do it
Thu 12 Oct 2023 23.12 AED
Two weeks ago, my employer presented me with a stark ultimatum: return to my offices in Kiel, Germany, within five days, or lose my job. I am a climate researcher and since March 2023, I have been completing vital fieldwork into the social impact of climate change almost 15,000 miles away by overland routes, on the island of Bougainville off the coast of Papua New Guinea.
…
This weekend, I will set sail on a cargo ship to return to Germany, travelling to East New Britain in Papua New Guinea. From there, I will cover the remaining distance to Europe by cargo ship, ferry, train and coach.
Many people have asked why it is so important for me to travel as low-carbon as possible. I have three reasons. First, I want to be consistent with my moral commitment to avoid flying. …
Second, I promised all the 1,800 participants in my research in Bougainville that I would return low-carbon. I want to keep my promise. White men (of whom I am one, as I am frequently reminded here) are often referred to as giaman – liars, fraudsters in Tok Pisin – probably with good reason given the country’s turbulent colonial past. I do not want to be seen as giaman.
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/12/fly-climate-breakdown-germany-climate-change-papua-new-guinea
New Guinea is a dangerous place, which appears to be plagued by corrupt authorities, violent drug crazies, and religious maniacs. A word of warning, don’t click the religious maniacs link unless you have a strong stomach.
I think the professor is deluding himself if he thinks his example has somehow made a difference. His presence is a footnote, a colourful visitor in a long line of colourful visitors, who will nevertheless quickly be forgotten. Life in such places is simply too intense to hang on to memories of people who are no longer present.
Don’t get me wrong, there are good people in New Guinea. You’ll find good people even in the most troubled places, as I have personally experienced. But good people cannot always help you, if you attract the attention of the wrong people.
The following travel video by Kurt Caz gives a fascinating on the ground glimpse of life in New Guinea. Kurt is a crazy South African who visits lots of dangerous places.
This weekend, I will set sail on a cargo ship to return to Germany, travelling to East New Britain in Papua New Guinea. From there, I will cover the remaining distance to Europe by cargo ship, ferry, train and coach.
Certainely CO2 free, or, in new speech, net-zero 😀
Swim you wimp! All these other industrial alternatives are carbon footprinty – you know the sort of stuff you would deny to me .
Hope the sharks get you.
“Swim you wimp!”??? Thanks. That made me laugh.
Regards,
Bob
Phileas Fogg barely made it around the world in 80 days. What makes this guy think he can make it 1/2 way around in 5 days utilizing the same modes of travel? He only has 5 days to make it back to Germany. I guess his Climate Researcher position means little to him.
Even single-volume publications seem to turn into movie trilogies nowadays, but 80 days fit in a 3hr move. He should be home in time for lunch.
What makes this guy think he can make it 1/2 way around in 5 days utilizing the same modes of travel?
He doesn’t. That’s his point. His employer has told him to return within 5 days and he says he can’t do it.
To be fair to him, he says that these other forms of transport will result in fewer carbon emissions compared to flying. He doesn’t say they are carbon-free. Whether he is correct that these other methods will emit less carbon dioxide is another question.
He’s also a member of Scientist Rebellion, that group of rational, level-headed people with no agenda whatsoever. Oh, wait…
In fact, he was one of the idjits that glued themselves to the floor of the Porsche exhibition in Germany last year. And there he in the photos – just to one side of the main group, in front of the white Porsche. Wonder if his activism was a contributing factor to his getting fired from the ‘Kiel Institute for the World Economy’?
“Wonder if his activism was a contributing factor to his getting fired from the ‘Kiel Institute for the World Economy’?”
The Boss may be taking this opportunity to get rid of this guy.
Yeah he doesn’t look at all absurd except for the fake nose and mustache glasses. Oh wait, that’s real?
A fraudster trying desperately to avoid being found out as a fraudster.
What fraudster? This climate researcher is a social scientist.
He’s an ‘experimental economist’ and committed climate activist. He’s a fraudster.
Not only that, but he has “been completing vital fieldwork”. Lives depend on his research. What, perhaps, he meant was that his livelihood depends on doing this research.
According to the link below, his PhD is in Economics and does his research work on the social approaches to global issues…
Gianluca GRIMALDA | Senior Researcher | PhD Economics | Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel | IFW | Social and behavioral approaches to global problems | Research profile (researchgate.net)
Gianluca GrimaldaKiel Institute for the World EconomyPhD Economics
Without a background in the hard sciences associated with the climate and atmospheric physics, it would appear that Dr Grimalda has fallen for the climate cult despite his PhD level education. With that educational level, one might think that he would know better than to fall into the climate trap without doing this due diligence first. But apparently not.
As much I perhaps should, I am afraid I cannot wish him good luck finding a new job.
Here he is at an auto exhibition protest in Germany about 11 months ago….
‘All the rage’: Protesters glue themselves to the floor at Volkswagen – YouTube
He’s a busy guy!
Just think how many more protests he could attend if he had only flown home. Now he’s wasting his time on a cargo ship.
Papua New Guinea is one place where you don’t want a call from a headhunter even if you need a new job.
Sounds like his bosses wanted him back home to get his head on a platter
He and the university have a contract , both have it to fulfill, he didn’t and wonders ?
Made my day!
There are YouTube videos of a missionary bush pilot who flies supplies into remote areas of New Guinea and flies out coffee or passengers. The professor should next travel to Ukraine and stop the war which is bad for the climate.
Where4 does it say he is a Professor?
He isn’t – he was employed by a private think tank, the ‘Kiel Institute for the World Economy’ as an associate researcher and does part-time lecturing in, presumably, economics.
“…East New Britain in Papua New Guinea. From there, I will cover the remaining distance to Europe by cargo ship, ferry, train and coach….”
Some people call that a holiday.
Someone should tell him that “moral” and “stupid” are not synonyms.
Hmm, wonder how he got to New Guinea in the first place. Just a wild guess – he flew.
This article has more information about the situation: https://www.barrons.com/articles/climate-researcher-rejects-being-sacked-for-refusing-to-fly-4e6907f4
He also appears to be lying his a$$ off somewhere – in the Guardian piece he’s quoted as having a ‘moral commitment to avoid flying’ but in the Afp piece he states he has ‘medically diagnosed climate anxiety’ and can’t fly!
Sounds hypochondric 😀
“states he has ‘medically diagnosed climate anxiety’”
I’ll bet he does! CO2-phobia has a strong hold on this one.
Phobia = an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something
I believe that describes this fellow to a T.
I’m betting it’s a phobia of work.
Reminds me of something a WWII vet told me. I was working in a factory in the summer of ’68. That vet told me that during the war he was in Papua New Guinea as an army soldier. He was on a beach- hanging out waiting for his next mission, looking down at something – when he saw a shadow, looked up and saw a local in native costume with a long spear and a bone in his nose. He said the guy certainly looked primitive but he also looked dignified- more so than some of this soldier’s friends who were often slovenly looking when inactive.
That would have been somewhat scary, but back then it seems the natives had a rich, one might say Rockefeller like, taste.
Kurt Caz seems like an adventurous guy.
He is a role model for idiocy. Calling him a professor is like calling the head of North Korea a humanitarian. first the imaginary human caused climate change he is studying has as much supporting evidence as fairies in the back garden. Second his activities will do nothing or less than nothing to help people of New Guinea attain better lives. And finally his “low carbon” options for a return to Germany are all fossil fuel driven. I suspect like many pseudo academics he is just milking the teat of academic funding for his own benefit.
He was a researcher at a private thinktank – ‘Kiel Institute for the World Economy’ who must’ve known he was a climate activist after he very publicly glued his hand to a Porsche exhibition floor last year (yes – that one). Presumably asking him to ‘fly home within five days or lose his job’ was their way of firing him without risk of a tribunal.
The “researcher” probably knew he’d be fired- but, he’s probably hoping that this publicity will result in a better job in a climate fanatic university which can then brag how dedicated Gianluca is to “the cause”. No doubt he’ll add this incident to his CV.
He’s a known activist.
Does that appear on his rap sheet?
No you have to dig for it. Alternatively you can look at the photograph’s of the protestors that glued themselves to the floor of the Porsche exhibition in Wolfsburg last year – he’s the one near the white Porsche.
exactly!
No he’s actually fighting the dismissal, on the grounds (try to keep a straight face here) that he has ‘medically diagnosed climate anxiety’ and he simply can’t fly or he’ll get a panic attack. His employers must be so very glad to be shot of him now.
And don’t forget that he claims his original plans to return on time were delayed by “former freedom fighters” and a volcano.
(At least he didn’t claim a dog ate his ticket!)
Steamboats and trains? Piker! Why not sailboats and walking?
That’s what I was thinking too – he should look to the “hero” of the CAGW movement, Greta, who traveled by sail boat (well, only on the first leg of her trip) across the Atlantic.
A sailboat built of carbon fibre and powered by dacron sails made from oil derived material.
With the second relief crew flown in.
If heat is so bad, how did he ever survive the hellish temperatures on Bougainville Island in the Solomons?
Bougainville is NOT in “the Solomons” which is the colloquial term for the country named Solomon Islands”:. It is however part of the “Solomon Islands Archipelago”
The Autonomous Region of Bougainville is a Region of Papua New Guinea (currently 🙂 ) forerly knwon as North Solomons Province.
“have been completing vital fieldwork into the social impact of climate change”
He could’ve just stayed home and looked in the mirror.
Here are some of his publications. Seems like a communist through and through.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gianluca-Grimalda
He’s fallen for the global warming nonsense. It looks like he will fall for anything.
Vital. Vital I tells ya!
Self-respect is good. Self-esteem too. But self-aggrandizement not so much. And this one shades deep into narcissism.
A great loss to the literary genre of fiction.
Oh I don’t know – rather than fiction writing he seems to be following Joseph Grimaldi into a career as a clown! Hmm Grimalda – Grimaldi, must be something in the name.
He is a climate researcher in Papua New Guinea? According to Worldometer, Papua New Guinea CO2 emissions are about 1 ton per person per year or about 0.03% of world emissions. Whatever he achieved, it could not possibly be even noticed. Why not do his “research” in Qatar, the world champion per-person emitter at about 38 tons per day or even Canada at about 19 tons per person per day. He could be so much more effective at seeking emissions reduction in Qatar or Canada and therefore a better world climate. No?
He’s not even a climate researcher, he’s researching social impacts of climate change.
He has no evidence that the climate in Papua New Guinea has even changed.
He has no long term data on how the social structure of the natives has been changing because of their increasing exposure to the modern world. But he feels that with a couple of months of research, he’s going to be able to figure out how a few hundredths of degree of warming has changed native culture over the last 70 years.
BTW, it’s well known that the absorption lines that CO2 has are almost all shared with water vapor. As a result, any time there is water vapor in the air, CO2 is incapable of having much impact on temperature. Not that it has much impact even when there is no water vapor in the air.
Not to mention the social structure changes resulting from the “Bougainville Conflict” in the 90’s
“BTW, it’s well known that the absorption lines that CO2 has are almost all shared with water vapor”.
Not true, the H2O lines are more spread out and there are far fewer of them, here’s a section of the spectra.
guest767718341.png
What you wrote is contradictory – the fact that the H2O lines are spread out means that they are even better at absorbing IR than if they were narrow – and do you mean by far fewer? The range that H2O covers is huge, doesn’t matter how many separate bands there are. How about you look at it this way: how many individual, whole number nanometer wavelengths are absorbed by water and how many by CO2 (essentially measuring the area of the absorption graph) – there isn’t much left open to CO2, and don’t forget that there is many times more H2O than CO2, so even if say H2O is much less effective at a given wavelength than CO2, the IR photon rising from the ground will mostly likely hit a water molecule than a CO2.
yeah, good idea ……..
In response to ….
”How about you look at it this way: how many individual, whole number nanometer wavelengths are absorbed by water and how many by CO2 (essentially measuring the area of the absorption graph”
Your point does not contradict what I said.
I never said that H2O did not have absorption lines that CO2 does not have.
All I said was that every absorption line that CO2 does have is also absorbed by H2O.
Bougainville is the location of a major copper mine. It was supposed to reopen, but has been mired in controversy for a long time. That’s why it attracted such an activist no doubt.
https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/decades-old-mine-in-bougainville-exacts-devastating-human-toll-report/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-06/bougainville-community-wants-answers-over-goldmine/102405194
Gotta love the picture.
He’s got his head on upside down and the ship is back-to-front.
iow: Perfect climate science
The word for a man who is so deluded he cuts off his nose to spite his face is
dork
How much fossil fuel will he be using for his share of all the travel by sea, cooking for a couple of months, on board and ashore, taxis, laundering, etc., etc. compared with 1/300th of the airline fuel. I think pressing on the link to his website might find the craziest loon of all.
Modern airliners, when they are full, are very fuel efficient.
I lived in PNG for a year and have returned more than once. It is not a dangerous place. It is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS place.
PNG is fascinating but….
I’ve lived in PNG for over 30 years and the vast majority of the country is NOT an extremely dangerous place.
Jet travel is fuel efficient.
Those cargo ships you plan to travel on burn bunker fuel—not exactly a clean/green way to go.
That is true, in terms of direct air pollution. In terms of GHG they are extremely efficient.
Stupid is as stupid does.
“Two weeks ago, my employer presented me with a stark ultimatum: return to my offices in Kiel, Germany, within five days, or lose my job.”
Sounds like he told before that ultimatum to return and refused.
(Also sounds like he wasn’t very good at his job!)
After spending a lot of time getting there by boat, rail and bus he was supposed to be back at his desk on 28th September after another long journey by boat, rail and bus. So he then gives his employer a series of excuses as to why he hasn’t left yet followed by them at the beginning of October telling him he’s got 5 more days then he’s fired if he’s not back at work. Two weeks later he’s still in Papua New Guinea, not even started the journey back and he’s wondering why he got fired. His employer appears the more reasonable of the two.
As we constantly reminded Project Managers trying to get us to work ridiculous hours, “lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”
His employer, Kiel Institute, have been remarkably quick in removing him from their website – just nothing there, even links from search engines get a 404 page up. They may also have replaced him, or at least be in the process of replacing him.
I’m guessing he’s had a history of being a nuisance employee and they created an opportunity, knowing he would likely f#€$ it up again so they could replace him.
I suppose he couldn’t drive from New Guinea to mainland Germany in a Volkswagon. He will have to get home somehow.
I was tempted to opine “at least he sticks to his principles” but he’s skipping the return leg of the trip on a flight that already collected ticket price. Going home first then quiety switching to a non-travel job may have had the same net effect.
A piece in the WSJ explained the father-son connection that took the NYC writer to Australia for a promised attendance at a football game. This was a single event trip, and the man immediately flew back after the event. It is, however, a nice story, but I would have stayed a couple of weeks.
cargo ships are DEFINITELY low carbon! What a clown.