{"id":50997,"date":"2026-02-15T13:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idea.membrane.com\/songwriter\/?p=50997"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T13:09:15","slug":"isotopic-signature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/2026\/02\/15\/isotopic-signature\/","title":{"rendered":"Isotopic Signature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Silence]<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental, Guitar, Piano, Organ, Synth, Bass, Percussion, Drums]<\/p>\n<p>[Intro]<br \/>\n[Minimal Beat, Sub Bass, Spoken Vocal]<br \/>\n[Instrumental Intro: Pulsing Bass, Organ Swell, Muted Guitar Chops, Rising Synth Filter]<br \/>\nIsotopic Signature<br \/>\n(Are you sure)<br \/>\nWe&#8217;re sure<br \/>\n[Instrumental]<br \/>\n[Bass Solo]<br \/>\n[Organ Stabs, Driving Bass, Snare March]\t<\/p>\n<p>[Verse 1]<br \/>\nBurn, baby, burn<br \/>\n(Combustion engine)<br \/>\nNooo&#8230; never learn<br \/>\n(Do it again and again)<\/p>\n<p>[Bridge]<br \/>\n[Instrumental, Pulsing Bass, Organ Solo, Guitar Riffs, Rising Synth Filter]<br \/>\nIsotopic Signature<br \/>\n(Are you sure)<br \/>\nWe&#8217;re sure<br \/>\n[Instrumental]<br \/>\n[Guitar Solo]<br \/>\n[Organ Stabs, Driving Bass, Snare March]\t<\/p>\n<p>[Chorus]<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s clear<br \/>\n(The atmosphere)<br \/>\nIsn&#8217;t clear<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re near<br \/>\n(The end of the line)<br \/>\nThe end of our time<\/p>\n<p>[Instrumental, Saxophone Solo]<br \/>\n[Organ Stabs, Driving Bass, Snare March]<\/p>\n<p>[Verse 2]<br \/>\nTurn up the heat<br \/>\n(Environmental cheat)<br \/>\nMaybe we better not<br \/>\n(Crank it too hot)<\/p>\n<p>[Bridge]<br \/>\n[Instrumental, Pulsing Bass, Organ Solo, Guitar Riffs, Rising Synth Filter]<br \/>\nIsotopic Signature<br \/>\n(Are you sure)<br \/>\nWe&#8217;re sure<br \/>\n[Instrumental]<br \/>\n[Guitar Solo]<br \/>\n[Organ Stabs, Driving Bass, Snare March]\t<\/p>\n<p>[Chorus]<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s clear<br \/>\n(The atmosphere)<br \/>\nIsn&#8217;t clear<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re near<br \/>\n(The end of the line)<br \/>\nThe end of our time<\/p>\n<p>[Outro]<br \/>\n[Instrumental, Pulsing Bass, Organ Solo, Guitar Riffs, Rising Synth Filter]<br \/>\nIsotopic Signature<br \/>\n(Are you sure)<br \/>\nWe&#8217;re sure<br \/>\n(Can we endure)<br \/>\n&#8230; er, a&#8230; not so sure<\/p>\n<p>ABOUT THE SONG: Human Contribution via CO\u2082<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1157\" data-end=\"1425\">Humans have increased atmospheric CO\u2082 from ~280 ppm (pre-industrial) to ~420 ppm today. This increase is not from natural sources but primarily from burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) and land-use changes. The\u00a0<strong data-start=\"1370\" data-end=\"1402\">isotopic signature of carbon<\/strong>\u00a0identifies the source:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"1427\" data-end=\"1795\">\n<li data-start=\"1427\" data-end=\"1659\">\n<p data-start=\"1429\" data-end=\"1466\"><strong data-start=\"1429\" data-end=\"1446\">\u00b9\u00b2C, \u00b9\u00b3C, \u00b9\u2074C<\/strong>\u00a0isotopes are key:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"1469\" data-end=\"1659\">\n<li data-start=\"1469\" data-end=\"1573\">\n<p data-start=\"1471\" data-end=\"1573\">Fossil fuels are depleted in\u00a0<strong data-start=\"1500\" data-end=\"1507\">\u00b9\u00b3C<\/strong>\u00a0because plants preferentially absorb \u00b9\u00b2C during photosynthesis.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1576\" data-end=\"1659\">\n<p data-start=\"1578\" data-end=\"1659\">Fossil fuels contain no \u00b9\u2074C (radiocarbon), as it decays over millions of years.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"1660\" data-end=\"1795\">\n<p data-start=\"1662\" data-end=\"1795\">The observed decline in \u00b9\u00b3C\/\u00b9\u00b2C ratio and \u00b9\u2074C content confirms that the excess CO\u2082 comes from fossil carbon, not volcanoes or oceans.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>From the album &#8220;<a href=\"\/albums\/Macroscopic-Perspective\/\">Macroscopic Perspective<\/a>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Silence] [Instrumental, Guitar, Piano, Organ, Synth, Bass, Percussion, Drums] [Intro] [Minimal Beat, Sub Bass, Spoken Vocal] [Instrumental Intro: Pulsing Bass, Organ Swell, Muted Guitar Chops, Rising Synth Filter] Isotopic Signature (Are you sure) We&#8217;re sure [Instrumental] [Bass Solo] [Organ Stabs, Driving Bass, Snare March] [Verse 1] Burn, baby, burn (Combustion engine) Nooo&#8230; never learn (Do [&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],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-50997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4d-music","tag-climate-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50998,"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50997\/revisions\/50998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}