Fool or Prophet? That’s the question I asked myself when I discovered the story of Gianluca Grimalda. A member of the movement Scientists in rebellionThis Italian researcher refused to take the plane to respond to his employer’s request for a quick return to Europe from his research mission located… in Papua New Guinea. A few days later, he learned of his dismissal by the Institute for the World Economy (ifW) from Kiel, Germany.

However, he spent six months working in remote areas of Bougainville to study the effects of climate change on the rural population: rising water levels, declining harvests and worsening social relations. He felt bound by the promise made to these men, women and children to return home using low-carbon modes of transport. “For me, it is immoral to fly when there is an alternative that emits less carbon,” explains the researcher tribune published on October 13 in the British daily The Guardian. How to solve this problem the pilgrim Gianluca Grimalda is probably on a train after taking a ferry, a freighter and a bus. He calculated that the impact of this route on the climate will be twelve times smaller than the air route. And that it will take about 35 days of travel instead of 32 hours by plane. His choice appeals to me both with excess and ethical precision. Is this not ultimately a sign of a prophetic gesture?