LYRICS
Another day of pounding rain
Another day of going insane
Atmospheric rivers
Hysterics delivers
Ain’t no self-restraint
Another night of howling winds
Another night knocked down and pinned
Atmospheric rivers
Hysterics delivers
Ain’t no self-restraint
Another year of record heat
Another year be tough to beat?
Atmospheric rivers
Hysterics delivers
Ain’t no self-restraint
The air above
Needs our love
And you know
The land below
The skis above
Need our love
Can’t see the sea nearly
More pollution
No solution
Institution
Of confusion
Depending on
Carrying on
But this can’t to on and on
… and on
- Social-Ecological-Systems-Part-I.mp3 (unplugged to conserve energy)
- Social-Ecological-Systems-Power-Outage.mp3
- Social-Ecological-Systems-Part-II.mp3
- Social-Ecological-Systems-Part-II-Instrumental.mp3
- Powers-of-Ours-LH-Casio-WK-3500.MID (Left Hand)
- Powers-of-Ours-RH-Yamaha-PSR-740.MID (Right Hand)
Chords: Em C Em / C D / D C Em / Am Em Bm Em / AM C / C B7 Em; Part II @ 104 Beats Per Minute
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
In September of 2023, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, “The remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia soaked the entire Philadelphia region with episodic downpours on Saturday, the first day of fall, conspiring to incite 60-mph wind gusts at the Shore and high-tide flooding that closed numerous roads in beach and back-bay towns.” There were up to 8 inches of rain recorded throughout the Philadelphia region over the three day event.
The winter of 2023 saw near weekly atmospheric river flash flooding events. On January 9, the Greater Philadelphia Region incurred an historic winter tropical violent rain event. CBS news reported, “If it feels like it’s been an abnormally rainy few weeks, you’re right. Normal rainfall totals between Dec. 1 and Jan. 9 amount to about 4.78 inches. Between December 2023 and Tuesday, we’d already recorded more than 9 inches of rain, an amount normally recorded in December, January and February combined.” The January 9 storm brought over 4 inches of rain to many areas. The Delaware River peaked at its highest level ever. There were hurricane strength winds with wind gusts over 70mph.
This song was written and recorded on January 9, 2024 during the storm. Upon starting the electric “plugged-in” version, we lost power for the first out of five times. The version is called “Social-Ecological-Systems-Power-Outage.mp3”. The studio was put on battery back-up for the remainder of the recording session.
The original intent of the song was to highlight the Social-Ecological risks of climate change.
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.
Unfortunately, even scientists are failing to see (let alone forecast) the rapid acceleration in climate change. Due to their complexity, the impacts of the Domino Effect are being underestimated. Tipping points are Critical Milestones that directly impact the rate of acceleration in climate change by multiplying the number and intensity of feedback loops. The Domino Effect is also known as “tipping cascades” in climate science. Cascading impacts in relation to tipping points include cascading impacts across biogeophysical and social systems. Until recently, scientist have been drastically underestimating the social-ecological systems. The University of Exeter reports, “There is a notable lack of topic clusters dedicated to how humans will be impacted by climate-related tipping cascades.”
2023 was a wake-up call to both biogeophysical and social-ecological scientists. The record breaking physical and economical impacts could be felt worldwide. The record warming year was seventeen times greater than any other record increase in history. Typically record breaking temperatures are measured in 100th degrees. There were also 200 consecutive days of record breaking temperatures. Typically there are one or two record breaking days in row. The increase in intensity and frequency of record breaking heat requires forecasting models to be recast.
Read the full articles:
The Reign of Violent Rain Brouse and Mukherjee (2023-2024)
The Age of Loss and Damage Brouse (2023)
Tipping Cascades, Social-Ecological Systems, and the Hottest Year in History Brouse (2024)
Climate Change: How Long Is “Ever”? Brouse (2023)
Climate Change: The End of Times Brouse and 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.