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.
That’s a shame.
Sounds to me like he has a thing for seamen and want’s to work his passage.
I see what you did there!
My immediate thought to the above article’s headline:
Ooooo . . . poor baby!
I think the professor is deluding himself if he thinks his example has somehow made a difference.
except he never said this was his reason.
he said:
not to “make a difference”
Actually, in the Afd article he states none of those reasons. He said that he has ‘medically diagnosed climate anxiety’ and he can’t fly because he’ll get a panic attack. I provided a link to the Barrons site that reprinted the article further back up the thread, check it out; it provides both more and different information than he has given to the Guardian, unless they are either paraphrasing him or just being ‘economical with the truth’.
“unless they are either paraphrasing him or just being ‘economical with the truth’.”
Really ?? the Gruniad would never do either of those things. 😉
#1 and #3..
You really need to put a lot of work in… don’t you moosh !
The guy just wants to be loved.
There’s a contradiction right there.
If he were to fly in a commercial aircraft that would otherwise have an empty seat, the incremental carbon dioxide emitted by the aircraft would be nigh unto zero.
When will we see his paper?
Next you visit “the necessary” it will be right next to Lew’s paper.
So he was researching “the social impact of climate change”, should have taken all of five minutes since there isn’t any in that part of the world. I wonder if he calculated the difference in CO2 emissions between flying for a few hours versus days on diesel powered ships, trains, and buses. Perhaps his virtue would not allow that.
“Refusing to fly has lost me my job as a climate researcher”
Good. One down only a few tens of thousand coprophiliacs to go. You’re not a climate researcher, bub. You’re a lying fraud of an activist. You add nothing of consequence to the world’s knowledge store.The rest of the world would have got more use from you if you had stayed in New Guinea and gone into a stew-pot.
Hmm, perhaps he could have reviewed some history before travelling to Bougainville to research the social effects of climate change.
Wikipedia actually has a reasonable summary.
Summarising the summary, Bougainville is an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. It became a German Protectorate in 1886, and became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia at the end of WWI. It was taken by Japan in WWII, and freed by Australian and US troops. The locals much preferred the white men to the Japanese.
PNG was an Australian Territory until the mid 1970s, when it gained independence. After various conflicts, Bougainville became an autonomous region.
The bottom line is that it’s had a turbulent past, but hasn’t been anybody’s colony since 1918.
They’re probably going to add stupid to that list.
They do, I believe, have a name for stupid and gullible visitors – ‘tourist.’
Complete climate alarmism stupidity and incompetence.
Probably. He sounds like he’s having a bit of a breakdown; selfish, inconsiderate, regressing to the state of an 18 yo gap student backpacking in the Pacific rather than working.
“I have been completing vital fieldwork into the social impact of climate change almost 15,000 miles away…”
The bigger issue is that he is working for a company that shouldn’t exist. What useful products or services does it sell? What are its sources of income other than grants from German and/or EU taxpayers?
And also, does this company report profits?
No it’s a non-profit organisation. I get the impression they are an important economic think tank that jumped on the climate change bandwagon and are now regretting hiring an activist like Grimalda.
This guy is dumber than a box of rocks, what is he going to Germany for to collect unemployment? Don’t cargo ships burn bunker fuel?
Bullshyte. That climatard twat has more frequent flyer miles than Hunter Xiden does. What a lie spewing f*ck.
What a completely ignorant moron! Definitely has severe mental instability and displays both Messiah Syndrome (I’m to save the world); and that abhorrent behavior of religious zealots who self flagellate or self mutilate. (like the blonde monk in The DaVinci Code movie)(I will punish myself for being a white male by riding on a cargo ship instead of flying)
If he did a bit of simple chemistry and math homework, he’d find that “low carbon” is pretty much to travel by wide body aircraft for long distances, as follows: (not that his belief that carbon dioxide is a pollutant is valid, but even with his twisted and distorted world view… the math says otherwise)
Boeing 747-400 per passenger mile emits 0.239 lbs CO2 per passenger mile. (400 passengers at ground speed of 600 mph)
Small cargo ship (45,000 tons) burns 50,000 lbs of fuel per day traveling 331 miles. This generates 155,000 lbs of CO2. So let’s say passengers and crew are 50 persons…
The Cargo ship generates 9.36 lbs of CO2 per passenger mile! Essentially 39x more CO2 per passenger mile than a 747-400!
Now both the B747 and the cargo ship are going to make their journey whether or not this nutbar is onboard or not. But if you want to feel personally responsible for a CO2 emission value, clearly the jet is the better option as it will take only 22 hours or so. While the ship will take 40 days.
The jet will burn a total of 407,000 lbs of fuel, while the ship burns 2,000,000 lbs of much dirtier fuel for that journey. (CO2 ratios for both fuels is roughly 3.1 lbs CO2 per pound of fuel burnt)
Diesel trains are actually worse than jetliners, coming in at 0.293 lbs CO2 per passenger mile and cars only slightly better than the 747. (4 passenger small car getting 22 mpg yields 0.221 lbs CO2 per passenger mile)
Actually a newer B737-800 gets 0.222 lbs CO2 per passenger mile. I used the decades old 747-400 as a conservative value – new aircraft engines are as much as 25% more fuel efficient than older ones. (and modern A380 or B777 are even better than the 737-800)
And why do you think they call it a cargo ship? In your calculation you just made the entire cargo emission free.
His family is waiting for him.
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His family is waiting for him. (Repeat since the other did not work)
Blithering idiots will think this blithering idiot is a hero..
If he does just one leg on the Superfast that is behind him he has lost the GHG-game….travelling on a large cargoship will let him claim the emission-per-ton-mile which is way lower than air travel. How he thinks he will get away with travelling by bus/car or train in addition is beyond me.
Your mistake was in assuming he ‘thinks’ rather than feelz. Nothing he has said on this subject has been thought through for a single second, it’s all about his feelings on AGW.
He was fired because he refused to follow his employer’s instructions. I suspect that he’s been a ‘problem child’ and his superiors at the Kiel Institute saw this as an opportunity to terminate him.
“Climate researcher” is that supposed to be some sort of occupation? Sounds like “tourist”