[Silence]
[Instrumental Intro: Driving Piano, Distorted Electric Guitar, Deep Sub-Bass, Organ, Drums, Percussion, Saxophone]
[Intro]
Hear that sound?
(It’s going down)
Was way off in the distance…
… now lacking resistance…
(Coming closer!)
… drawing near…
(Oh dear!)
Runaway!
(Run away!)
Oh, no…
[Verse 1]
Started with a little push
(Just a little shove)
Then it picked up speed
(That’s enough!)
Round and round
The wheels go faster
Little problem
(Becomes disaster)
Tried to stop it
(Tried to slow)
But the thing kept saying:
(No whoa, no!)
[Refrain]
Run away!
(It’s a runaway runaway)
Out of the way!
(It’s a runaway runaway)
Self-reinforcing
(History divorcing)
Oh, it’s coming this way…
(Today)
Runaway runaway
(Run away)
[Verse 2]
Yesterday was yesterday
(That’s what we say)
But yesterday’s momentum
(Is coming this way)
Cause and effect
(Effect and cause)
Round and round
(Without a pause)
What once seemed strange
(Becomes the norm)
What once was calm
(Becomes the storm)
[Refrain]
Run away!
(It’s a runaway runaway)
Out of the way!
(It’s a runaway runaway)
Self-reinforcing
(History divorcing)
Oh, it’s coming this way…
(Today)
Runaway runaway
(Run away)
[Bridge]
Is it runaway?
(Run away!)
Does it self-reinforce?
(Of course!)
… and much worse
Will tomorrow
Still follow?
(Not today!)
[Break]
[Drums Stop — Deep Bass Pulse]
Run…
(Run…)
Run away…
(Away…)
(Missed the starting gun?)
Run…
(Run…)
Run away…
(Away…)
[Whispered]
One thing…
(Begets another.)
[Drums Explode]
RUNAWAY!
[Instrumental]
[Extended Distorted Guitar Solo — Driving Piano, Organ, Saxophone, Galloping Drums and Deep Bass]
[Final Refrain]
Run away!
(It’s a runaway runaway)
Out of the way!
(It’s a runaway runaway)
Change of course?
(… much worse)
(Better call a hearse)
[Outro]
Oh, it’s coming this way…
(Today)
[Fade out]
Runaway runaway
(Run away)
[Distorted Guitar Feedback]
[End]
[Silence]
About the Song
Is Climate Change Runaway? Maybe.
Unfortunately, the underlying science increasingly points in that direction. More importantly, it highlights what may be the most critical issue facing society today: not whether climate change is occurring, but whether we are approaching thresholds beyond which many impacts become effectively irreversible on human timescales.
None of us are arguing that the entire Earth system is in a fully runaway state today. However, observations accumulated over the past four decades suggest that multiple climate indicators are accelerating faster than many earlier projections anticipated. We are also observing increasing evidence of self-reinforcing feedback loops emerging across interconnected climate, ecological, and economic systems.
The central question is no longer whether runaway behavior is possible in principle. The question is how we recognize the transition if and when enough individual subsystems enter self-reinforcing states that the larger coupled system begins exhibiting runaway characteristics of its own.