Nothing more powerful than a risky personal act. Consider Greta Thunberg.

Or Gianluca Grimalda.

When Grimalda’s German bosses told the Italian climate researcher to return to work fast, from the other side of the planet, Grimalda declined. A 32-hour airplane journey from Papua New Guinea to Germany would generate 5.3 tonnes of Earth-warming CO2, Grimalda insisted. Slow travel – by ocean freighter and train — would generate 420 kilos. Twelve times less. He’d come back slow.

Gianluca Grimalda

Grimalda got the boot. A hard hit, but Grimalda is philosophical. He’d told the 1800 participants in his climate research project, in Bougainville, that he’d travel back to Europe low-carbon, and he didn’t want to be seen as a giaman – a liar or fraudster in the Solomon Islands language.

Moreover, honest researchers are the foundation of credible climate science, Grimalda reasoned.

The GPM reached Gianluca Grimalda on a freighter docked in Rabaul, East New Britain, on the Bismarck archipelago of Papua New Guinea, at the start of his slow journey back to Germany.

Listen to our conversation. Click on the play button above, or go here.

Listen to our complete conversation here:

Gianluca Grimalda’s slow travel trajectory

One of the best parts of academic research is going to conferences, in far off places. Earlier this month, Canadian political scientist Radikha Desai travelled to Russia (by plane, not boat) to attend a forum organized by the Valdai Discussion Club, an annual talk-fest for Russian academics, diplomats and politicians. Vladimir Putin typically attends.

Radhika Desai

Desai is interested in this kind of stuff. The University of Manitoba political scientist has written extensively on US hegemony, globalization and contemporary imperialism, from a critical Marxist perspective. Among her positions – that the US and NATO provoked Russia into invading Ukraine, and that the war, now into its eighteenth bloody month, is actually an American proxy war on Russia. So, definitely beyond mainstream.

As it happens, here in Canada, the Valdai Discussion Club is beyond the pale. Last September, Ottawa slapped sanctions on it for “generating and disseminating disinformation and propaganda.”

As if this didn’t put Desai in a delicate spot, Vladimir Putin answered her submitted question. What did Russia’s president think about that standing ovation 98-year-old Ukrainian veteran Yaroslav Hunka got in the Canadian Parliament for fighting the Russians in World War II, on the side of the Nazis?

Putin’s answer, nuanced and diplomatic, sent ripples across global media and a flood of hate mail into her inbox.

Desai’s question – her mere presence at the forum – was “morally reprehensible” and “pretty horrendous,” one Canadian right-winger declared.

Her students support her.

Radikha Desai is Professor in the Department of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, and Convenor of the International Manifesto Group. The GPM spoke with her about her risky move, and her thoughts on the Russia-Ukraine war.

Listen to our conversation. Click on the play button above, or go here.

Thanks to Dan Weisenberger for his wonderful guitar instrumentals.