Yuri

and

Mirjam

Raising his hands in a dramatic gesture, Yuri

walks towards Mirjam, ‘This is where we

make the future happen!’ He extends a hand

to her and f lashes a wide grin, ‘I am so happy

you could come.’ 

The entrance hall is modern, stylish and

enormous, and the sun shines through the

tall glass windows. Mirjam shakes his hand,

‘Of course. To deal with the climate crisis, we

need everyone to do their share.’ 

Yuri nods energetically, ‘And this is what we

are ready to do, here at the Shell Energy

Transition Campus!’ Then his face darkens,

‘Though things are not made easy for us.’ He

sighs, ‘If we were treated as a partner rather

than the enemy, we could f inally put our

resources to use in the energy transition.’ 

He steps close to Mirjam, ‘You are the

president of the VU Amsterdam We should

partner up transition together For the

future

Looking around the enormous building

Mirjam thinks You certainly have the cash

my researchers need She looks him straight

in the eyes Will you do your share

Yuri f lashes his grin Absolutely Mirjam I

promise

Mirjam sits at her desk in front of a pile of

dossiers but her mind is elsewhere She

gazes through the window overlooking the

campus square It is fall and it rains lightly

Some distance away a f lag f laps in the wind

showing the logos of the VU and of Shell.

‘Transition together.’ She has a bad feeling. 

On her desk, her eyes catch the copy of

the interview she gave with Yuri. ‘We need

to have each other’s backs to withstand

resistance within our own organisations

against our collaboration,’ Yuri said in the

interview. His damn grin, it reminds Mirjam

of someone. But of whom? She types the

words ‘Disney villain smile’ into Google

image search. Bingo. 

Suddenly she hears sounds from outside.

Looking out her window on the campus

square, she sees a small group of people,

some dressed in white lab coats. When she

squints her eyes she can make out some

faces. Petra is there, Julia, Remco and Hans

as well. Those troublemakers. Some days

ago they published an open letter Shell

prof its from preventing the transition as

long as possible they wrote The company

knew about climate change for decades

and yet it paid scientists and PR agencies

to spread misinformation and greenwash

Shell is about the worst possible partner

for the energy transition they concluded

The business professor in her f inds the

arguments convincing And yet Politicians

handle the company with kid gloves Who is

she to take a stand when the elected leaders

dont She looks a little longer at the group

below Then she swivels her chair around and

gets up Things to do