A climate scientist who once glued himself to the floor of a Porsche factory is now being fired after telling his employer he is returning to Germany from the Solomon Islands on a trip that will take him two months.
Dr. Gianluca Grimalda, a researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, was one of nine scientists who glued themselves to the floor of a VW factory in October 2022 in an attempt to save the car giant, which is valued at almost $58 billion force the euro to ‘decarbonise’.
The protesters from activist group Scientist Rebellion dressed in white lab coats and were in the factory for only a few hours before they started complaining that they had no food and nowhere to go to the toilet.
Grimalda was arrested by German police after he voluntarily left the protest after complaining that he could not use the toilet and that his hand was swollen. Medics warned him he risked life-threatening blood clots if he stayed longer.
Now Grimalda is in trouble again after his employers threatened him with a pink slip after he told them he was refusing to fly back to Germany on principle, and would instead embark on a two-month journey by land and sea in a trying to reduce its CO2 emissions.
Grimalda claimed he was called a ‘big man’ by communities in Solomon Island
He was arrested by German police after he and eight others glued themselves to the floor of a VW factory
Grimalda told the guard he wants to make the 14,000-mile journey back to Europe alone using a mix of freighters, ferries, trains and coaches.
He claims the two-month journey will reduce his production by 3.6 tons.
The climate scientist has spent the past six months studying the consequences of climate change and globalization on the Solomon Islands for the Kiel Institute.
He was told that if he was not at his desk in Germany by Monday, he would be fired.
But as his deadline came and went, he waited in Buka Town, Bougainville, for a freighter.
“I have written to the president of my institute to tell him that I am not here today and that I will travel back by ship and land,” he told the newspaper.
Grimalda has spent the past six months studying the impacts of climate change and globalization in the Solomon Islands
In February he traveled to the Solomon Islands for over a month
He said he had to spend a lot of time convincing local communities that he could be trusted
Despite this being a work excursion, he admitted that his return to Germany was long overdue
His fieldwork was reported to end in July and he was reported to have returned on September 10
He traveled from Germany to Papau New Guinea for over a month earlier this year
‘I’m doing well now, but some of the last few days have been quite traumatic because I didn’t expect this kind of behavior from the people at my institute. But I think I made the right choice.
‘Air travel is really the fastest way to burn fossil fuels, so the fastest way to set ourselves up for catastrophe… So from my perspective, as an individual, flying is probably by far the activity where I use the largest share of my carbon budget .’
This is not the first time that the eco-warrior has made a long journey around the world.
In February he began documenting his journey from Germany to the Solomon Islands, and for the next 35 days he documented his travels.
He said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, at the time: “I made this trip as a sign of love, respect and gratitude for life on our planet.
‘I don’t know if what I did was pointless or if, like in a Shakespearean tragedy, in a world full of madness the craziest actions are the most normal. I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”
The group of nine activists from the Scientist Rebellion group taped their hands to the floor of Autostadt, a Volkswagan museum in the northern city of Wolfsburg, Germany
A group of eco-activists taped themselves to the floor of a Porsche showroom in Germany and vowed to stay there until their demands to decarbonize Germany’s transport sector were met
The eco-activists sat on the ground for almost 24 hours – surrounded by the Porsches – refusing to leave after spending the night there
Despite this being a work excursion, he admitted that his return to Germany was long overdue. His fieldwork was reported to end in July and he was reported to have returned on September 10.
But he claimed he faced several delays, including being held for ransom by bandits, theft of his equipment and significant difficulties in getting local communities to talk to him.
“It takes time to build trust between communities and a ‘white man’ – as I am always called – so several communities asked me to explain the content of the research twice or even three times before fieldwork began,” he said .
In a photo shared with X, he claimed he had been crowned ‘big man’ by local women in the Solomon Islands.
MailOnline has contacted the Kiel Institute for comment.