LYRICS
“What’s up, Bigshot?”
They’re asking you
How ’bout “why not?”
Do’s have come due
Did you hear them say
“The piper demands pay!”
Ohh…
It’s on the way?
I swear…
It’s on the way
Put it in the post today
It’s on the way
Keep on drilling
As illing comes on
The sick get thick
And it won’t be long
Did you hear them say
“The piper demands pay!”
Ohh…
It’s on the way?
I swear…
It’s on the way
Put it in the post today
It’s on the way
Shot down Biggun
No place to run
Not bones nor hide
Have place to hide
Did you hear them say
“The piper demands pay!”
Ohh…
It’s on the way?
I swear…
It’s on the way
Put it in the post today
It’s on the way
Curtains falling
End of the show
Music’s over
Discover know
Or didn’t you hear the say
No help is on the way
“The piper demands pay!”
Ohh…
It’s on the way?
I swear…
It’s on the way
Put it in the post today
It’s on the way
Chords: G A G A / C E A / C D A; Part II @ 120 Beats Per Minute / fourth verse slowdown, speedup, slowdown.
Instrumentation: Vocals (TC-Helicon VOICELIVE and MiniNova Vocorder), Ibanez Acoustic Guitar, Ibanez RG Series Electric Guitar (Boss Digital Delay), Fender Jazz Bass (Boss Digital Delay), Keyboards (Korg PS60, Casio WK-3500, Yamaha PSR-740, MiniNova, MicroKorg)
ABOUT THE SONG
These lyrics use The Pied Piper as a metaphor to convey a sense of impending consequences, particularly related to environmental issues and climate change. The lines “What’s up, Bigshot?” and “They’re asking you, how ’bout ‘why not?'” suggest a confrontational tone directed at someone in authority or power, challenging their actions or inaction.
The reference to “The piper demands pay!” implies that there will be consequences for past actions, and the repeated refrain “It’s on the way” emphasizes the inevitability of these consequences. The urgency is heightened with the lines “Keep on drilling, as illing comes on,” linking environmental exploitation (drilling) with detrimental effects on health and well-being (illing).
The mention of being “shot down Biggun” and having “no place to run” paints a picture of dire circumstances with no escape, possibly reflecting the irreversible damage caused by human activities. The repeated assertion that “It’s on the way” underscores a sense of accountability and a reckoning for the actions taken.
The concluding lines, “Curtains falling, end of the show, music’s over, discover know,” convey a sense of finality and a realization that time is running out. The phrase “No help is on the way” suggests a lack of external assistance or redemption, reinforcing the idea that the consequences must be faced.
Overall, these lyrics utilize The Pied Piper narrative to convey a warning about the impending repercussions of environmental degradation and the urgent need for accountability and change.
The phrase “pay the piper” originates from the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The town of Hamelin agrees to pay the Piper to get rid of all the rats. When they fail to pay him, he steals their kids. Similarly, Man has failed to pay the price of human induced climate change. Now the human race will pay the price with our children and our children’s children.
Human induced climate change is an exponential component of an unordered system (chaos theory). That means global warming is accelerating at a rapid rate in a complex way. From 1992 through 2023, we presented evidence and suggested remedies to mitigate climate change. By 2023, the data was undeniable that human induced climate change is destroying our habitat at a rapidly increasing rate.
“For people, for other species, for the ecosystems, for the world we live in, we’ve entered the Age of Loss and Damage, but we’re just at the start. What we are seeing already just makes you want to cry,” said Dr. Christopher Trisos (BBC Interview / MP3 Format) from the University of Cape Town.
Tipped Tipping Points, Feedback Loops, and the Domino Effect
Tipping points are Critical Milestones that directly impact the rate of acceleration in climate change by multiplying the number and intensity of feedback loops.
Push a glass toward the edge of a table and eventually it will fall off on its own. No matter how slowly or meticulously you push… no matter how you weight or fill the glass, it will reach a tipping point and fall off before being pushed completely off the table. No matter whether you believe the glass is half-empty or half-full, when the tipping point is reached it will plummet out-of-control to its end. This is science not fate, faith, nor belief. Human induced climate change has resulted in environmental tipping points being breached.
Tipping points, when crossed, trigger self-sustaining feedback loops that are no longer dependent on human activity. Similar to when a domino topples over hitting two more dominoes that in turn fall hitting more dominoes. Thus, the name The Domino Effect. It can also be visualized as The Snowball Effect. A tipping point is like a snowball rolling down a hill growing in mass and velocity (momentum). When a tipping point is crossed, it results in cumulative and reinforced global warming.
By 2024, six (6) of the multiple tipping points show the proverbial snowball is already rolling. The first dominoes have fallen and will continue to knock down more tiles with each escalating step.
- Mountain Glacier Loss
- Greenland Ice Sheet Collapse
- Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse
- Collapse of AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation)
- Amazon Rainforest Dieback
- Northern Permafrost Collapse
Crossing even a single tipping point is alarming. For instance, crossing the tipping point for ‘mountain glacier loss‘ has immediate consequences: millions of people in Europe will be impacted by the lack of fresh water. Billions of people that live along coasts will be impacted by the saline infiltration and eventually by the submerging of their property. In September of 2022, UNESCO reported accelerated melting of glaciers in World Heritage sites, with glaciers in a third of sites set to disappear by 2050. In September of 2023, the GLAMOS glacier monitoring center found 10% of Swiss glaciers had disappeared in the last 2 years. They do not expect any Swiss glaciers will be left by 2050 no matter what actions are taken. If extreme measures are taken, they anticipate we may be able to save some polar glaciers.
This in and of itself should be alarming; however, it gets worse. Tipping points are parts of feedback loop systems. The ice-albedo feedback loop is an expression of the ability of surfaces to reflect sunlight (heat from the sun). Any loss of ice over a darker surface means the surface will absorb more heat and reflect less heat. This process makes the Earth warmer causing more loss of ice, which in turn causes more warming of the Earth. So, yes, the mountain ice tipping point is quite alarming for both its immediate impact as well as its self-sustaining growth to global warming; but wait, it gets more alarming. The increasing temperatures due to crossing a tipping point cause other tipping points to be toppled (The Domino Effect).
By the Autumn of 2023, it had become evident the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets will completely melt. The process is irreversible and inevitable. The cool water from the melting ice at the poles is being drawn toward the center of the Earth and getting warmed to record high temperatures. The warm, moist air is circulating and moving over land. These changes in climate systems will cause other areas to experience unprecedented drought. We expect sea level rise will total about 270 feet over the next several millennia. It is episodic, and in the fast bits it can go up 3 feet every twenty years for five hundred years. The melting Arctic and Antarctic have multiple feedback loops including: enhanced oceanic heating and ice-albedo, Planck feedback, lapse-rate feedback, and cloud feedback.
— from Toppled Tipping Points: The Domino Effect / Brouse and Mukherjee (2023)
In 2023, we wrote about having crossed tipping points in the paper, “Climate Change: How Long Is ‘Ever’?“. When we wrote the Tunnel Under Thesis in 1995, we forecast crossing these tipping points would not happen for centuries. We underestimated Man’s ignorance and arrogance. Fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions have continued to set record highs. Humans have caused chain-reactions resulting in toppled tipping points, feedback loops, and The Domino Effect.
Events we thought would not happen in our lifetimes are happening now. My last resort emergency plan was to escape to Canada. This summer that plan literally went up in smoke. “Beginning in March 2023, and with increased intensity starting in June, Canada has been affected by an ongoing, record-setting series of wildfires.” — Wikipedia
All of my life I have located my office and bedrooms in the uppermost southern exposure (preferably in the tree canopy.) I love sunlight, elevation, trees, fresh air, and wildlife. It is becoming ever more obvious my dreamlife is coming to an end, and I will be forced to tunnel under. For those forward thinkers, think about your poop. Pumping sewage above ground level will be a major problem at all times. In addition, the inability to pump flood water will become deadly during extreme weather events. In July of 2020 NPR reported, “The remnants of Hurricane Ida dropped unprecedented rainfall on several eastern states, killing dozens of people. Eleven of them were Queens residents who died when their basement apartments flooded.” In August of 2022 CNN reported, “Seoul has vowed to move some of the city’s poorest families out of underground and semi-subterranean homes after 13 people were killed in flooding caused by record rainfall this week, sparking public horror and calls for government accountability.” Drowning in your own poop may result for those unprepared.
There will be enough ice melt, water redistribution, and extreme weather events to raise sea levels as much as 270 feet. Sidd reiterated, “That 270 feet will take a long time. I would be more careful about the violent rain than the ice melt.”
“For any remaining humans, fresh air, water, food, and sunlight will all be problematic; however, your most severe concern will likely be security. Those with supplies will be at high risk of being raped and looted. Good luck!”
— from Climate Change: The End of Times / Daniel Brouse and Sidd Mukherjee (2023)
What Can I Do?
There are plenty of things you can do to help save the planet. Stop using fossil fuels. Consume less. Love more. Here is a list of additional actions you can take.