{"id":54704,"date":"2026-07-22T15:40:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/?p=54704"},"modified":"2026-07-22T15:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:51:52","slug":"beavers-and-beetles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/2026\/07\/22\/beavers-and-beetles\/","title":{"rendered":"Beavers and Beetles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Silence]<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental, Guitar, Piano, Organ, Synth, Bass, Percussion, Drums]<\/p>\n<p>[Intro]<br \/>\n[Instrumental Intro: Rolling Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Organ Swells, Nature Sounds, Building Drums]<br \/>\n[Minimal Beat, Sub Bass, Spoken Vocal]<br \/>\nTiny builders&#8230;<br \/>\n(Tiny borers&#8230;)<br \/>\nChanging landscapes&#8230;<br \/>\n(Open mouth gapes)<\/p>\n<p>[Refrain]<br \/>\nBeetles and beavers<br \/>\n(Climate feedback deceivers)<br \/>\nBeavers and beetles<br \/>\n(Disruptive peoples)<\/p>\n<p>[Verse 1]<br \/>\nFarther north the varmints roam<br \/>\nMaking frozen lands their home<br \/>\nBuilding damns across the streams<br \/>\nChanging more than natural scenes<\/p>\n<p>[Chorus]<br \/>\nBeavers and beetles<br \/>\n(Changing the land)<br \/>\nFollowing warmth<br \/>\n(Not anyone&#8217;s plan)<\/p>\n<p>[Refrain]<br \/>\nBeetles and beavers<br \/>\n(Climate feedback deceivers)<br \/>\nBeavers and beetles<br \/>\n(Caused by disruptive peoples)<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental]<br \/>\n[Guitar Solo]<br \/>\n[Driving Bass, Organ Chords, Country Rock Feel, Synth Wind Effects]<\/p>\n<p>[Verse 2]<br \/>\nWinter&#8217;s cold once kept them small<br \/>\nNow it hardly comes at all<br \/>\nBark beetles wake another spring<br \/>\nLeaving forests suffering<\/p>\n<p>Pines grow silent one by one<br \/>\nStanding dead beneath the sun<br \/>\nFire finds an easier way<br \/>\nBurning hotter every day<\/p>\n<p>[Bridge]<br \/>\nNot because<br \/>\n(They choose to be)<br \/>\nThey&#8217;re simply following<br \/>\n(Ecology)<\/p>\n<p>Life adapts<br \/>\n(To changing ground)<br \/>\nUnexpected<br \/>\n(Links are found)<\/p>\n<p>[Breakdown]<br \/>\n[Minimal Beat, Deep Sub Bass, Spoken Vocal]<br \/>\nThe varmint&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>isn&#8217;t causing climate change.<br \/>\n(Become a believer)<\/p>\n<p>The pest&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>isn&#8217;t causing climate change.<\/p>\n<p>They are&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>responding to what we rearrange.<\/p>\n<p>And their responses&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>change the system&#8230;<br \/>\n(I am in)<\/p>\n<p>[Final Chorus]<br \/>\nBeetles and beavers<br \/>\n(Climate feedback deceivers)<br \/>\nBeavers and beetles<br \/>\n(Disruptive peoples)<\/p>\n<p>Northward moving<br \/>\n(Building more)<br \/>\nOpening yet<br \/>\n(Another door)<\/p>\n<p>Small beginnings<br \/>\n(Big surprise)<br \/>\nChanging Earth<br \/>\n(Before our eyes)<\/p>\n<p>Working together&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Without ever&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Meeting each other.<\/p>\n<p>[Outro]<br \/>\n[Instrumental Outro: Gentle Guitar, Organ Fade, Forest Sounds, Flowing Water]<br \/>\nVarmints and pests<br \/>\n(&#8230; never rests)<br \/>\nPests and varmints<br \/>\n(Human experiments)<\/p>\n<p>About the Song<br \/>\n\ud83e\uddab Arctic Beaver Expansion<br \/>\n\ud83e\udeb2 Boreal Forest Beetles<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Beaver Expansion in the Arctic<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As northern regions warm:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>beavers move farther north,<\/li>\n<li>they build dams,<\/li>\n<li>ponds trap warm water,<\/li>\n<li>warm water melts surrounding permafrost,<\/li>\n<li>wetlands expand,<\/li>\n<li>methane emissions increase.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An animal once considered ecologically beneficial in temperate regions becomes an unexpected amplifier of Arctic warming.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Boreal Forest Beetles<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cold winters historically killed bark beetles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>milder winters<\/li>\n<li>more beetles survive<\/li>\n<li>forests die<\/li>\n<li>dead forests burn more easily<\/li>\n<li>fires release carbon<\/li>\n<li>soot darkens snow and ice<\/li>\n<li>additional warming allows beetles to expand farther north.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>From the album <strong>&#8220;<a href=\"\/albums\/Butterflies-and-Dominoes\/\">Butterflies and Dominoes<\/a>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Silence] [Instrumental, Guitar, Piano, Organ, Synth, Bass, Percussion, Drums] [Intro] [Instrumental Intro: Rolling Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Organ Swells, Nature Sounds, Building Drums] [Minimal Beat, Sub Bass, Spoken Vocal] Tiny builders&#8230; (Tiny borers&#8230;) Changing landscapes&#8230; (Open mouth gapes) [Refrain] Beetles and beavers (Climate feedback deceivers) Beavers and beetles (Disruptive peoples) [Verse 1] Farther north the varmints [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-54704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4d-music","category-bizarre-bazaar","tag-climate-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54717,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54704\/revisions\/54717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}