Climate Pirates

Dr Franziska Elmer is a coral reef scientist who, for the last decade or so has been based on Turks and Caicos. In 2018 she had a wake up call. As the global climate narrative took a turn for apocalyptic she had also just finished reading Be More Pirate, and decided that it was time to step up and play a bigger role in the fight to reverse the climate and ecological crisis. So, climate pirates were born.

After forming a small crew on the island, she initially focused her attention on the 2020 International Coral Reef Society conference. Her challenge to the organisers was that they were ignoring the conference’s carbon footprint and that there should be parallel locally organised events to enable the ideas presented to reach more communities and allow people to become involved without having to travel thousands of miles. But rather than waiting for permission to do so, she and few others, started organising.

The full story of how this emerged is in How to Be More Pirate.

In 2020, Franziska gave a talk at TedX Luzern, outlining her mission.:

There are places on Earth that have been visited by almost as few people as have gone to Space. Franziska has been to one of these locations, Palmyra Atoll, a nature refuge in the middle of the Pacific. In her talk, she will take you to the incredible places she visited as marine biologist and tell you why she gave up this lifestyle to fight for climate justice. As a marine biologist, she cares deeply about our natural world, but almost all opportunities to advance her career come with a large carbon footprint that harms the coral reefs she studies. As the climate crisis became more serious she could not live with this contradiction anymore. Motivated by the fact that 2018-2030 will likely become the most important years in human history, she started to act more boldly. Never before have we had to tackle such an immense challenge. After 2030 we will often be asked by the younger generations: “Which role did you play in this important time?” Franziska has found her role: as a climate pirate.