In the name of climate protection, Gianluca Grimalda has repeatedly refused to return to Europe by plane. The Italian scientist and environmental activist was on a mission to Papua New Guinea. He denounces his dismissal by his German employer after refusing to take the plane. Gianluca Grimalda, researcher at the Institute for the World Economy (IfW), headquartered in Kiel (northern Germany), received a letter in mid-October, consulted this Friday by AFP, telling him that their “employment relationship was over.”
No reason is specified in this letter. A few days earlier, the scientist, a specialist in social psychology, had received an ultimatum from his employer telling him to “fly home”, under penalty of dismissal, which he had refused. “With just one plane trip, I would have released as much CO2 as an average person over a year. It’s absolutely unthinkable for me,” he explains by telephone from Bougainville Island.
Train, bus and boat to travel 16,000 kilometers
Gianluca Grimalda, aged 51 and of Italian nationality, has just spent six months studying the social effects of climate change in Papua New Guinea, an island state in the Pacific Ocean. An environmental activist and member of the Scientist Rebellion collective, he had already decided to take only “the train, the bus and the boat” for his outward journey in February for two thirds of the route, i.e. 16,000 km out of 22,000 km in total. from Germany.
For his return, the researcher wanted to do the same, with an arrival in Kiel, in agreement according to him with his employer, scheduled for September 10. But his work was delayed. The researcher says in particular that he was the victim of a hostage-taking instigated by former independence fighters, while the eruption of a volcano led to the cancellation of a trip.
An employee who suffers from “climate anxiety”
The IfW Kiel institute then asked him to return to October 2, according to a letter also consulted by AFP, a deadline which has now passed. The scientist declares that he suffers from “climate anxiety”, confirmed, according to him, by a local doctor. “If I fly, I might have a panic attack,” he says.
“What is happening now with the climate is frightening, and is happening very quickly,” adds Gianluca Grimalda. He declares that, once he returns to Germany, he wishes to challenge this dismissal in court, citing these reasons of mental health. Contacted by AFP, the institute declared for its part that it would not “comment publicly on internal personnel-related matters” in order to “protect the privacy of employees”.