GREAT MOMENTS IN EXHIBITIONIST NARCISSISM: Cleanup of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate after climate protest to be longer and more expensive.

The cost of cleaning the gate was initially put at about 35,000 euros ($36,900). But the management company, Berliner Immobilienmanagement, made clear that it now expects a bigger and much more expensive effort.

The color that was used has seeped deeper into the sandstone monument than originally thought because of its water content, BIM said in a statement. It added that various cleaning techniques have been tested, and a combination of those methods will probably have to be used — as well as the potential use of laser technology.

That means the cleaning work will probably take “several weeks” and the costs will increase, BIM added. It said that it’s not currently possible to give a precise figure, but it expects “costs in the six-digit region” because scaffolding will have to put up around parts of the gate.

Earlier: Joel Kotkin: Environmentalism is a Fundamentalist Religion.

And Michael Shellenberger has a thread on the intersection of apocalyptic environmentalism and exhibitionist narcissism that’s well worth a read: