LYRICS
Despite the dirt and grime
Despite the vice and crime
At The End of time(s)
I’ll feel fine
Unite with scientists
Solutions we can’t resist
At The End of time(s)
You’ll feel fine
At The End of time(s)
We’ll feel fine
As the fear of the unknown has grown
Look to the sage to be shown
Near the age of the known
Near the age
Of the known
Be a sage
Of mind-blown
Despite the dirt and grime
Despite the vice and crime
At The End of time(s)
I’ll feel fine
Unite with scientists
Solutions we can’t resist
At The End of time(s)
You’ll feel fine
At The End of time(s)
We’ll feel fine
All we have to do is look around
Answers to be found abound
Near the age of the known
Near the age
Of the known
Be a sage
Of mind-blown
Despite the dirt and grime
Despite the vice and crime
At The End of time(s)
I’ll feel fine
Unite with scientists
Solutions we can’t resist
At The End of time(s)
You’ll feel fine
At The End of time(s)
We’ll feel fine
The fear of the unknown is gone
Moving on… feeling knowledge dawn
Near the age of the known
Near the age
Of the known
Be a sage
Of mind-blown
Chords: F/7 Eb Bb F / Ab Eb Bb / Eb Bb F; Part II @ 152 Beats Per Minute
Instrumentation: Vocals (TC-Helicon VOICELIVE and MiniNova Vocorder), Ibanez Acoustic Guitar, Fender Squire Mini (Boss Digital Delay), Fender Jazz Bass (Boss Digital Delay), Keyboards (Korg PS60, Casio WK-3500, Yamaha PSR-740, MiniNova, MicroKorg)
ABOUT THE SONG
Fear
Why are people afraid of climate change?
The fear of the unknown and the fear of the dark are both common human fears that can be rooted in our evolutionary history and psychological factors.
- Fear of the Unknown:
- This fear is often associated with uncertainty and the unfamiliar. Humans naturally seek predictability and control in their environment, and the unknown represents a lack of control.
- It can manifest in various aspects of life, such as fear of the future, fear of the unfamiliar, or fear of the unpredictable.
- Fear of the Dark:
- Fear of the dark, known as nyctophobia, is a common fear, especially in children. It may stem from a survival instinct, as humans historically needed to be cautious in the dark to avoid potential dangers. There is an innate fear of the unknown.
- Imagination and the inability to see clearly in low light conditions can contribute to feelings of vulnerability and fear.
Both fears are deeply ingrained in the human experience and can vary in intensity from person to person. Understanding and addressing these fears often involve a combination of psychological strategies, exposure therapy, and cognitive-behavioral techniques to reframe perceptions and reactions.
Climate Change Knowledge
We know the following to be inevitable and irreversible:
- Mountain Glacier Loss
- Greenland Ice Sheet Collapse
- Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse
- Collapse of AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation)
- Amazon Rainforest Dieback
- Northern Permafrost Collapse
Tipping cascades have emerged between biogeophysical and social-ecological systems. This Domino Effect is causing climate change to accelerate at an exponential rate.
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.
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.
The tipping point for the collapse of AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) was thought to be centuries away, at the earliest. In July of 2023, the study Warning of a forthcoming collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation was published in the journal Nature Communications. “Here we provide statistical significance and data-driven estimators for the time of tipping. We estimate a collapse of the AMOC to occur around mid-century (2025-2095) under the current scenario of future emissions.” The collapse is likely to cause faster sea level rise on the east coast of the US, more severe storms in Europe, and increasing drought in the Sahel in Africa. “From the study of past climate, we know changes in the AMOC have been some of the most abrupt and impactful events in the history of climate,” said Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and world leading oceanographer. During the last Ice Age, winter temperatures changed by up to 10C within three years in some places. “We are dealing with a system that in some aspects is highly non-linear, so fiddling with it is very dangerous, because you may well trigger some surprises,” he said. “I wish I knew where this critical tipping point is, but that is unfortunately just what we don’t know. We should avoid disrupting the AMOC at all costs. It is one more reason why we should stop global warming as soon as possible.” A feedback loop created by the AMOC tipping point would cause a disruption of weather systems and circulation. The result would be the loss of naturally occurring carbon sinks. One scenario is desertification of the Amazon rainforest. In 2023, the Amazon River and the Rio Negro set record low levels.
The tipping point / feedback loop problem is very complex (chaos theory) and exponentially alarming. Yet another tipping point appears to have been triggered before 2024 — Amazon Rainforest Dieback. The Amazon is often referred to as ‘the lungs of our planet.’ Not only does the Amazon suck in huge quantities of CO2 and breath out O2, but the Amazon soils also store huge amounts of CO2. The desertification of the Amazon would result in a release of the carbon as the soils disappeared.
— from Toppled Tipping Points: The Domino Effect / Brouse and Mukherjee (2023)
What will the “End of Times” look like?
“The era of global warming has ended and the era of ‘global boiling’ has arrived. Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning”, UN secretary general, António Guterres, said after scientists confirmed July 2023 was on track to be the world’s hottest month on record.
Movement of people and animals caused by climate is one factor. Warming at higher latitudes allowed vectors and pathogens to survive winter is another factor. The report goes on to say, “The human pathogenic diseases and transmission pathways aggravated by climatic hazards are too numerous for comprehensive societal adaptations, highlighting the urgent need to work at the source of the problem: reducing GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions.”
This research reveals more evidence that humans will have difficulty adapting to climate change, especially those in developing countries, Mora said. “The magnitude of the vulnerability when you think about one or two diseases — okay, sure, we can deal with that,” he said. “But when you’re talking about 58% of the diseases, and 58% of those diseases can be affected or triggered in 1,000 different ways. So that, to me, was also revealing of the fact that we’re not going to be able to adapt to climate change.”
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.
There will be enough ice melt to raise sea levels 220 feet. We estimate 270 feet to be “the minimum safe” elevation to live. High-tides, waves, coastal flooding, storm surge, grade of shoreline, etc. would make the lowest elevations for living space to be at least 270 feet above pre-industrial sea levels. This would be the minimum elevation. Personally, I would not want to live that low. As the water submerges sewage treatment plants, landfills, chickens, cows, and all sorts of other bio-hazards, the waters will become toxic. In addition, much of the land will experience salinization making it unfit for plant life. Another concern for elevations under 800 feet is living on an island. Many locations at lower elevations will become isolated. Living on an island has many problems including fresh water, food, shelter, and healthcare. Security from pirates pilfering, raping, and plundering will likely be the overriding concern. Of course, I don’t expect that to happen for millennia, but I hope government planners do plan for it now. If you look at Florida as an example, parts of the coastline have seen sea levels rise over 14-20 feet in the last decade. Although the storm surge was only for hours, you wouldn’t want to live there during those hours. Not to mention, the frequency of these extreme weather events will rise exponentially. Thus, our recommendation to evacuate Florida now (i.e. Managed Retreat). The billions of dollars spent to rebuild after Hurricane Ida will all be for naught. Allowing building there will needlessly endanger property and lives. Parts of the world have already seen storm surges of 40 feet. I expect most North American coastlines will see sea levels rise, if only temporarily, by 20-40 feet this century. As far as long run sea level rise, much will depend on location, gravity, isostatic adjustment, and thermal expansion. If the ocean temperatures get warm enough (thermal expansion), parts of the world may see sea levels rise to 270 feet for long periods of times. Other parts of the world, like Greenland, may actually see sea levels decline. In any event, the Earth crossed tipping points this decade which make extreme sea level rise inevitable and irreversible in our lifetimes. Planners should plan on it.
Sidd reiterated, “That 270 feet will take a long time. I would be more careful about the violent rain than the ice melt.” Expect to see increasing intensity and/or frequency in a wide variety of violent rain events including: downpours, flooding, hurricanes, cyclones, monsoons, coastal flooding, storm surges, lightning and wildfires, hail, extreme wind, and concurrent extremes. The reign of violent rain has already begun. More hillsides and shorelines are collapsing. Atmospheric rivers are dramatically increasing flash flooding in the Northeastern USA. Worldwide, stormwater systems are becoming overwhelmed. Ironically, the streets of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE, flooded days before the COP28 Climate Conference. Nowhere is safe from violent rain, not even in the desert preparing for a UN meeting on the climate crisis. As a result of increasing violent rain, new drainage culverts are forming. Eventually, the culverts will transform into recurring streams, carving new canyons, creating new landscapes and islands. In addition, extreme weather events are increasing the frequency of lightning storms and wildfires. After wildfires, rain deluges cause massive landslides transforming the topography. At the same time as the violent rain makes its way to the sea, the sea is rising to meet the violent rain.
In the article “Violent Rain and the Substrate,” Greg Laden, coastal archaeologist, said, “With a little erosion, the Hudson, Lake Champlain, and the St. Lawrence could become contiguous, so New England becomes an Island.”
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 / Brouse and Mukherjee (2023)
Conclusion
Don’t be afraid. Shed some light on global warming. Learn what is going to happen so you can reduce your anxiety and prepare for the inevitable.
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.