[Intro]
Can you feel it?
(Feel it coming!)
Can you see it?
(It’s unfolding!)
One by one…
(They’re connecting!)
Round and round…
(… worth reflecting.)
Look out!
(Here it comes!)
[Verse 1]
First there was a little change
Then the patterns rearranged
One feedback starts to grow
Another joins the undertow
The ocean warms, the ice retreats
The atmosphere absorbs the heat
The forests burn, the currents shift
And every change becomes a gift…
(Not the kind you want to get!)
A chain reaction, don’t forget!
[Pre-Chorus]
Warming…
(It’s activating!)
Coupling…
(It’s connecting!)
Amplifying…
(It’s accelerating!)
Can you stop it?
(Can you see?)
The system’s changing…
(Nonlinearly!)
[Refrain]
Look out!
(Lookout, look out!)
’cause…
(It’s happening)
By the way…
(Didn’t think I’d live to see the day)
Yet, here we are…
(How bizarre?)
Singularity
(Once a rarity)
Pop quiz:
(Here it is)
The whole…
(Heading like a blackhole)
… similar to a flushing…
(Toilet bowl)
Best hold your breath
(For avoiding death.)
[Verse 2]
It’s not a single isolated event
It’s the sum of the energy that’s been spent
Feedback networks intertwine
And reinforce each other’s climb
The ice reflects a little less
The oceans hold the heat and stress
The clouds respond, the water flows
And nobody knows how far it goes
One tipping point can shift the rest
A domino effect under stress
The separate pieces now combine
Into a system intertwined
Warming…
(It’s activating!)
Coupling…
(It’s connecting!)
Amplifying…
(It’s accelerating!)
Can you stop it?
(Can you see?)
The system’s changing…
(Nonlinearly!)
[Refrain]
Look out!
(Lookout, look out!)
’cause…
(It’s happening)
By the way…
(Didn’t think I’d live to see the day)
Yet, here we are…
(How bizarre?)
Singularity
(Once a rarity)
Pop quiz:
(Here it is)
The whole…
(Heading like a blackhole)
… similar to a flushing…
(Toilet bowl)
Best hold your breath
(For avoiding death.)
[Bridge]
A little feedback…
(Becomes a network)
A network…
(Becomes a system)
A system…
(Becomes a cascade)
And a cascade…
(Goes down like the domino)
Whoa oh oh
(Watch ‘er go!)
It’s the convergence…
(Of the forces!)
It’s the coupling…
(Of the courses!)
Round and round!
(It’s happening!)
Down and down!
(It’s happening!)
Blackhole!
(One whole!)
Toilet bowl!
(Toilet bowl!)
[Verse 3]
We thought we had the time to spare
To change the course and show we care
But policy moves at human speed
While feedbacks multiply and feed
The system doesn’t wait for votes
Or read the promises that someone wrote
It follows energy, physics, and flow
With consequences we are getting to know
A climate system, intertwined
With tipping points across the line
The future’s not a fixed design
But time is running down the line
[Pre-Chorus]
Warming…
(It’s activating!)
Coupling…
(It’s connecting!)
Amplifying…
(It’s accelerating!)
One more link…
(One more chain!)
One more cycle…
(One more gain!)
[Final Refrain]
Look out!
(Lookout, look out!)
’cause…
(It’s happening)
By the way…
(Didn’t think I’d live to see the day)
Yet, here we are…
(How bizarre?)
Singularity
(Once a rarity)
Pop quiz:
(Here it is)
The whole…
(Heading like a blackhole)
… similar to a flushing…
(Toilet bowl)
Best hold your breath
(For avoiding death.)
[Extended Refrain]
Look out!
(It’s happening!)
Feedback!
(Coupling!)
Tipping points!
(Cascading!)
Dominoes!
(They’re falling!)
Look out!
(Lookout, look out!)
It’s happening!
(It’s happening!)
[Outro]
Didn’t think…
(We’d see the day)
Yet here we are…
(What can I say?)
The system’s changing…
(It’s rearranging)
The whole…
(Heading like a blackhole)
It’s happening…
(It’s happening…)
Look out!
(Your window)
Look out!
(Your backdoor)
Look out!
About the Song
🌎🎵 The new release of the day: “It’s Happening (Singularity)”
My weekend homework assignment was simple: explain climate-system singularity in as few words as possible. So, naturally, I set it to music!
The song uses a couple of analogies, including gravitational singularities and black holes. But there’s another analogy I’ve been playing with since I first tried explaining my mind’s eye back in the ’90s: a toilet flushing. 😂
Imagine you’re floating in a toilet, right near the rim. The flush begins, the water starts swirling, and the forces converge into an accelerating vortex that pulls everything toward the drain.
That’s my visual analogy for climate-system singularity: individual feedbacks emerge, couple, reinforce one another, and converge into an increasingly interconnected network of planetary change.
In the climate analogy, the toilet has already been flushed, and we’re accelerating toward the vortex.
But here’s the real question:
Can you see it? 👀
About the Science
Climate-System Singularity: Convergence of Feedback Networks
As individual feedbacks emerge, couple, and organize into self-reinforcing networks, those networks increasingly interact and converge toward a unified, interconnected climate system.
A climate-system singularity represents a critical tipping point where interacting feedbacks drive increasingly uncontrollable and irreversible planetary change. It is analogous to a gravitational singularity, such as a black hole, where converging forces produce a point beyond which conventional predictions and control break down. In the climate system, this represents a trajectory toward increasingly unpredictable, self-reinforcing change that becomes progressively decoupled from human policy intervention.
From the album “Feedback Coupling“