{"id":55625,"date":"2026-09-22T13:27:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/?p=55625"},"modified":"2026-09-22T13:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T13:49:33","slug":"runaway-runaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/2026\/09\/22\/runaway-runaway\/","title":{"rendered":"Runaway Runaway"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Silence]
\n[Instrumental Intro: Driving Piano, Distorted Electric Guitar, Deep Sub-Bass, Organ, Drums, Percussion, Saxophone]<\/p>\n

[Intro]
\nHear that sound?
\n(It’s going down)<\/p>\n

Was way off in the distance…
\n… now lacking resistance…
\n(Coming closer!)
\n… drawing near…
\n(Oh dear!)<\/p>\n

Runaway!
\n(Run away!)<\/p>\n

Oh, no…<\/p>\n

[Verse 1]
\nStarted with a little push
\n(Just a little shove)
\nThen it picked up speed
\n(That’s enough!)<\/p>\n

Round and round
\nThe wheels go faster
\nLittle problem
\n(Becomes disaster)<\/p>\n

Tried to stop it
\n(Tried to slow)
\nBut the thing kept saying:
\n(No whoa, no!)<\/p>\n

[Refrain]
\nRun away!
\n(It’s a runaway runaway)
\nOut of the way!
\n(It’s a runaway runaway)<\/p>\n

Self-reinforcing
\n(History divorcing)
\nOh, it’s coming this way…
\n(Today)<\/p>\n

Runaway runaway
\n(Run away)<\/p>\n

[Verse 2]
\nYesterday was yesterday
\n(That’s what we say)
\nBut yesterday’s momentum
\n(Is coming this way)<\/p>\n

Cause and effect
\n(Effect and cause)
\nRound and round
\n(Without a pause)<\/p>\n

What once seemed strange
\n(Becomes the norm)
\nWhat once was calm
\n(Becomes the storm)<\/p>\n

[Refrain]
\nRun away!
\n(It’s a runaway runaway)
\nOut of the way!
\n(It’s a runaway runaway)<\/p>\n

Self-reinforcing
\n(History divorcing)
\nOh, it’s coming this way…
\n(Today)<\/p>\n

Runaway runaway
\n(Run away)<\/p>\n

[Bridge]
\nIs it runaway?<\/p>\n

(Run away!)<\/p>\n

Does it self-reinforce?
\n(Of course!)
\n… and much worse<\/p>\n

Will tomorrow
\nStill follow?<\/p>\n

(Not today!)<\/p>\n

[Break]
\n[Drums Stop \u2014 Deep Bass Pulse]<\/p>\n

Run…
\n(Run…)
\nRun away…<\/p>\n

(Away…)<\/p>\n

(Missed the starting gun?)
\nRun…
\n(Run…)<\/p>\n

Run away…<\/p>\n

(Away…)<\/p>\n

[Whispered]
\nOne thing…<\/p>\n

(Begets another.)<\/p>\n

[Drums Explode]<\/p>\n

RUNAWAY!<\/p>\n

[Instrumental]
\n[Extended Distorted Guitar Solo \u2014 Driving Piano, Organ, Saxophone, Galloping Drums and Deep Bass]<\/p>\n

[Final Refrain]
\nRun away!
\n(It’s a runaway runaway)
\nOut of the way!
\n(It’s a runaway runaway)<\/p>\n

Change of course?
\n(… much worse)
\n(Better call a hearse)<\/p>\n

[Outro]
\nOh, it’s coming this way…
\n(Today)<\/p>\n

[Fade out]
\nRunaway runaway
\n(Run away)<\/p>\n

[Distorted Guitar Feedback]<\/p>\n

[End]<\/p>\n

[Silence]<\/p>\n

\n
\n \"Is
\n <\/a>
\n<\/figure>\n

About the Song
\nIs Climate Change Runaway? Maybe.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the underlying science increasingly points in that direction. More importantly, it highlights what may be the most critical issue facing society today: not whether climate change is occurring, but whether we are approaching thresholds beyond which many impacts become effectively irreversible on human timescales.<\/p>\n

None of us are arguing that the entire Earth system is in a fully runaway state today. However, observations accumulated over the past four decades suggest that multiple climate indicators are accelerating faster than many earlier projections anticipated. We are also observing increasing evidence of self-reinforcing feedback loops emerging across interconnected climate, ecological, and economic systems.<\/p>\n

The central question is no longer whether runaway behavior is possible in principle. The question is how we recognize the transition if and when enough individual subsystems enter self-reinforcing states that the larger coupled system begins exhibiting runaway characteristics of its own. <\/p>\n

Feedback Loops<\/a><\/h3>\n

“Present Tense<\/a>“<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Silence] [Instrumental Intro: Driving Piano, Distorted Electric Guitar, Deep Sub-Bass, Organ, Drums, Percussion, Saxophone] [Intro] Hear that sound? (It’s going down) Was way off in the distance… … now lacking resistance… (Coming closer!) … drawing near… (Oh dear!) Runaway! (Run away!) Oh, no… [Verse 1] Started with a little push (Just a little shove) Then […]<\/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],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-55625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4d-music","tag-climate-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55625","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=55625"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55632,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55625\/revisions\/55632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}