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‘Utterly fascist’: NYT columnist wants to build a ‘wall of shame’ in D.C. for climate skeptics

February 26, 2024 | | Print Article

Should you dare to question the claims of climate-change cultists who have repeatedly been ridiculously wrong about their predictions, you should have your name permanently etched into a marble wall of shame in our nation’s capital.

That’s the opinion of the founder and management partner of a venture capital firm who stands to score untold riches from a stream of “government support,” so long as the climate change narrative flows uninterrupted.

Nate Loewentheil founded Commonweal Ventures, “a venture capital firm that invests in clean energy, health and financial technologies,” according to his New York Times bio.

Sitting on Commonweal Ventures’ Advisory Board is Kerry C. Duggan, a “former climate advisor to President Joe Biden.”

“Government support has underpinned the success of 25% of all recent VC-backed unicorns,” the company states on its website. “Shifts in public policy are accelerating this trend. Commonweal Ventures invests in early-stage technology founders in sectors like clean energy, financial services, real estate, and healthcare positioned to capitalize on government commitments and establish category-winning companies.”

So it’s no wonder Loewentheil wants to shame and silence those who say the “existential threat” posed by climate change is actually a money-making scam perpetuated by well-connected elites. Allowing them to freely debate the issue could cost him a fortune.

The New York Times was happy to give him some space to ensure that never happens.

“Here is a proposal for the environmental movement: Pool philanthropic funds for a day, buy a small plot of land in Washington, D.C., and put up a tall marble wall to serve as a climate memorial,” Loewentheil wrote in a recent op-ed.

“Carve on this memorial the names of public figures actively denying the existence of climate change,” he continued. “Carve the names so deep and large, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren need not search the archives.”

Lest you think he’s joking, Loewentheil makes it clear he is absolutely serious.

“This is not a metaphor,” he stated. “The problem with climate change is the disconnect between action and impact. If politicians vote against construction standards and a school collapses, the next election will be their last. But with climate change, cause and effect are at a vast distance.”

According to the investor, “the most immediate burdens” of climate change “are borne mostly by the poor in America and distant people in distant lands.”

“Misaligned incentives are at the heart of why some political and business leaders deny and delay,” he explained. “For them, there can be immediate political and economic benefits to avowed ignorance, and by the time the waters rise, their deeds and words will be forgotten.”

“A memorial,” he argued, “would help adjust for this temporal gap.”

“It would serve as a permanent testament of climate deniers whose actions might otherwise be lost to history and a reminder to those weighing their words today of what the future may bring,” he wrote.

Loewentheil’s got a bunch of nifty ideas for shutting his detractors up.

“The climate memorial would need to be in a highly visible place,” he reasoned. “Perhaps a commission could be established to select one climate antihero from academia or politics or business to be added to the memorial each quarter. Better yet, the names could be crowdsourced.”

And, naturally, he has some thoughts on who should be the first victims of his marble-etched character assassination:

I would first nominate those who have sown confusion over climate science, like Myron Ebell, who recently retired as director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, where he sought to block climate change efforts in Congress, and served as the head of Donald Trump’s transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Ebell has argued that the idea that climate change is “an existential threat or even crisis is preposterous.”

Then there are lawmakers who have consistently stood in the way of federal action, like the recently retired senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the author of the book “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.”

 

“You do realize that shaming people who disagreed with you is what Maoists did during the Cultural Revolution, right?” asked one user on X.


“How utterly fascist of you,” one user told Loewentheil. “Truly anti-science at it’s worst.”

“If you can’t win them over with logic, reason, facts and data, then maybe you aren’t doing your job or your position is as solid as your ego tells you it is,” the user stated. “A real scientist uses this as a learning opportunity.”

Melissa Fine
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