[Verse 1]
Spring came early
(What did you say?)
Trees woke up
(Before the day)
Buds unfolding
(Birds take flight)
Roots are moving
(Into the light)
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Verse 2]
Phenology
(What’s that?)
The study of timing
(That’s that!)
When leaves unfold
(When flowers bloom)
When insects emerge
(When birds resume)
When trees put out
(Their tender leaves)
When caterpillars hatch
(Before the freeze)
When pollinators arrive
(When food is there)
When everybody’s ready
(But nobody’s prepared)
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Bridge]
It’s not just hot…
(That we’ve got.)
Things aren’t rhyming
(It’s the timing.)
Tick-tock…
(Tick-tock…)
Bud break!
(Break!)
Leaves
(Leaving)
Flower!
(Power!)
Tick-tock…
(Tick-tock…)
Who’s keeping time?
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Breakdown]
Phenology…
(Phenology…)
Messin’ with biology
[Final Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Outro]
A man-made
(Cascade)
Changing the forest’s functions
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Changing who’s viable)
… a phenology tragedy
Autumn came late…
(We changed the date.)
About the Song
Phenology: The Study of Biological Lifecycle Events
Disruption in Pennsylvania’s Sylvania
Pennsylvania’s forests are being disrupted by accelerating seasonal expansion—the lengthening of warm-season conditions into spring and autumn. The change is doing more than making individual days warmer. It is altering the timing of tree life cycles, increasing ecological vulnerabilities, and shifting which species can successfully survive and reproduce.
As summer-like conditions expand into early spring and late autumn, biological events known as phenology are increasingly occurring outside the historical weather conditions to which Pennsylvania’s forests evolved.
The result is a cascade of ecological disruptions.
[Refrain]
Accelerating
(Seasonal Expansion)
Exasperating
(Reason in suspension)
Forever summer…
(… a real bummer)
[Bridge]
[Beat Drops / Psychedelic Organ / Echoed Vocals]
Forever…
(Summer…)
Forever…
(Bummer…)
Is it a vacation?
(No!)
Is it relaxation?
(No!)
It’s duration
(Know expansion!)
It’s intensity
(Reality!)
[Instrumental]
[Surf Guitar Solo / Wah-Wah / Drum Fills]
June…
July…
August…
September…
October?
(Wait…)
November?
(Seriously?)
… really!
[Refrain]
Accelerating
(Seasonal Expansion)
Exasperating
(Reason in suspension)
Forever summer…
(… a real bummer)
[Breakdown]
[Spoken / Half-Time Groove]
“Hey… what month is it?”
(October.)
“What’s the temperature?”
(Summer.)
“…Oh.”
[Final Refrain]
Accelerating
(Seasonal Expansion)
Exasperating
(Reason in suspension)
Forever summer…
(… a real bummer)
[Outro]
Accelerating
(Coming on strong)
Summer keeps expanding
(… and hanging on)
Forever summer…
(How long can it last?)
Forever summer…
(It’s growing fast…)
About the Song: Accelerating Seasonal Expansion
The seasons are not simply getting warmer. They are changing duration, timing, and intensity.
Summers Now Last 30 Days Longer
Summer is getting longer.
A study by researchers at the University of British Columbia found that, between 1990 and 2023, summer-like conditions across the regions between the tropics and the polar circles expanded by roughly six days per decade. That rate is substantially faster than earlier estimates.
The researchers did not define summer by the calendar. Instead, they identified summer as the period when temperatures rise above a location’s historically typical threshold for the warmest part of the year. Using this temperature-based definition, they found that summers across the midlatitudes now last roughly 30 days longer than they did in the 1960s.
The change is occurring at both ends of summer: warm conditions are arriving earlier in the year and lingering later into autumn. The result is not simply a longer calendar season, but a longer period of accumulated heat.
A Longer Summer
• Accelerating seasonal expansion — The UBC study, published in Environmental Research Letters, found that summer length increased by roughly six days per decade from 1990 to 2023. Across the midlatitudes, summer is now about 20 days longer than it was in 1990 and roughly 30 days longer than in the 1960s.
• Summer heat lingering into fall — Climate Central analyzed temperature records from 246 major U.S. cities and found that summer-like temperatures now extend an average of 10 days later into autumn in 227 cities—92% of those analyzed—compared with the early 1970s.
[Pre-Chorus]
And that’s where intuition
(Can lead you astray)
Because complicated systems
(Don’t always behave that way)
[Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Breakdown]
[Half-Time / Spoken Vocal]
Cognition…
What can you process?
(More or less)
Recognition…
(Of what you possess)
Cognitive ability
(Showin’ off its fragility)
[Final Bridge]
[Band Builds / Crowd Vocals]
Think beyond the tribe!
(Think to what you proscribe!)
Think beyond the certainty
(… till you find clarity)
[Final Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Outro]
Not simply ignorance
(If it’s on purpose)
Not simply intelligence
(If you choose to lose)
Cognitive ability
(Needs humility)
Reasoning without reflection
(Can become a weapon)
[Organ / Guitar Feedback / Fading Drum Beat]
Cognitive ability
(Showin’ off its fragility)
[Final Whisper]
Cognitive ability…
(Needs humane vision.)
Face-to-face reality
(Moral of the lesson)
About the Song
Cognitive Ability, Christian Nationalism & Climate Change Denial
A 2026 study by sociologist S. L. Perry finds a significant negative association between verbal cognitive ability and Christian nationalist beliefs in the United States.
That finding raises an important question:
What does cognition have to do with climate change denial?
Climate science is extraordinarily complex. Understanding it requires processing interconnected systems, probabilities, feedbacks, long-term trends, and evidence that cannot simply be evaluated through everyday experience.
This creates several pathways toward climate skepticism:
🧠 Intuitive thinking can favor simple narratives over complex scientific evidence.
✝️ Christian nationalist ideology can reinforce distrust of secular scientific and academic institutions.
🛡️ Motivated reasoning can allow people with substantial cognitive ability to construct sophisticated defenses of beliefs that are deeply connected to their political, religious, or cultural identity.
The result is a paradox: Less cognitive capacity can make complex science harder to process. Greater cognitive capacity can make existing beliefs harder to dislodge.
The problem is therefore not simply ignorance.
It is the interaction of cognition, ideology, identity, institutional trust, and reasoning.
The cards are on the table
(The table’s turning round)
The rules aren’t quite stable
(But listen to that sound)
[Verse 1]
We came with empty pockets
(And a head full of dreams)
Life keeps changing channels
(Or so it seems)
You can’t keep every moment
(You can’t hold back the tide)
But you can choose the way
(You take the ride)
[Pre-Chorus]
[Drums Build]
So roll the dice
(Breathe once or twice)
Look around
(You’re alive)
[Refrain]
Let’s…
(Play the game)
Sure bets…
(That’s the name)
Play the game of livin’
(With what we’ve been givin’)
Take love’s advice…
(Come to life)
Come out and play
(Today)
[Verse 2]
We chase tomorrow
(And forget today)
We build our little castles
(Then give them away)
A little bit of kindness
(A little bit of grace)
Can change the whole equation
(Can change the place)
[Refrain]
Let’s…
(Play the game)
No regrets…
(Stayin’ sane)
Play the game of livin’
(With what we’ve been givin’)
Take love’s advice…
(Come to life)
Come out and play
(Today)
[Bridge]
The end of the game
(Isn’t winning)
Never the same…
(Close to beginning)
[Electric Guitar Swell]
Love…
(Love)
Life…
(Life)
Play…
(Away)
… all day
Come alive!
(Thrive!)
Live!
(Live!)
Give!
(Give!)
Love!
(Love!)
Let’s…
(Let’s!)
Play…
(Play!)
The…
Game!
(GAME!)
Of livin’!
[Refrain]
Let’s…
(Play the game)
Sure bets…
(The name)
[Outro]
Play the game of livin’
(With what we’ve been givin’)
Take love’s advice…
(Come to life)
