[Verse 1]
Spring came early
(What did you say?)
Trees woke up
(Before the day)
Buds unfolding
(Birds take flight)
Roots are moving
(Into the light)
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Verse 2]
Phenology
(What’s that?)
The study of timing
(That’s that!)
When leaves unfold
(When flowers bloom)
When insects emerge
(When birds resume)
When trees put out
(Their tender leaves)
When caterpillars hatch
(Before the freeze)
When pollinators arrive
(When food is there)
When everybody’s ready
(But nobody’s prepared)
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Bridge]
It’s not just hot…
(That we’ve got.)
Things aren’t rhyming
(It’s the timing.)
Tick-tock…
(Tick-tock…)
Bud break!
(Break!)
Leaves
(Leaving)
Flower!
(Power!)
Tick-tock…
(Tick-tock…)
Who’s keeping time?
[Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Breakdown]
Phenology…
(Phenology…)
Messin’ with biology
[Final Refrain]
A man-made
(Cascade)
… of ecological disruptions
(Biological interruptions)
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Holding mankind liable)
… a phenology tragedy
[Outro]
A man-made
(Cascade)
Changing the forest’s functions
Messin’ with the lifecycle
(Changing who’s viable)
… a phenology tragedy
Autumn came late…
(We changed the date.)
About the Song
Phenology: The Study of Biological Lifecycle Events
Disruption in Pennsylvania’s Sylvania
Pennsylvania’s forests are being disrupted by accelerating seasonal expansion—the lengthening of warm-season conditions into spring and autumn. The change is doing more than making individual days warmer. It is altering the timing of tree life cycles, increasing ecological vulnerabilities, and shifting which species can successfully survive and reproduce.
As summer-like conditions expand into early spring and late autumn, biological events known as phenology are increasingly occurring outside the historical weather conditions to which Pennsylvania’s forests evolved.
The result is a cascade of ecological disruptions.
[Refrain]
Accelerating
(Seasonal Expansion)
Exasperating
(Reason in suspension)
Forever summer…
(… a real bummer)
[Bridge]
[Beat Drops / Psychedelic Organ / Echoed Vocals]
Forever…
(Summer…)
Forever…
(Bummer…)
Is it a vacation?
(No!)
Is it relaxation?
(No!)
It’s duration
(Know expansion!)
It’s intensity
(Reality!)
[Instrumental]
[Surf Guitar Solo / Wah-Wah / Drum Fills]
June…
July…
August…
September…
October?
(Wait…)
November?
(Seriously?)
… really!
[Refrain]
Accelerating
(Seasonal Expansion)
Exasperating
(Reason in suspension)
Forever summer…
(… a real bummer)
[Breakdown]
[Spoken / Half-Time Groove]
“Hey… what month is it?”
(October.)
“What’s the temperature?”
(Summer.)
“…Oh.”
[Final Refrain]
Accelerating
(Seasonal Expansion)
Exasperating
(Reason in suspension)
Forever summer…
(… a real bummer)
[Outro]
Accelerating
(Coming on strong)
Summer keeps expanding
(… and hanging on)
Forever summer…
(How long can it last?)
Forever summer…
(It’s growing fast…)
About the Song: Accelerating Seasonal Expansion
The seasons are not simply getting warmer. They are changing duration, timing, and intensity.
Summers Now Last 30 Days Longer
Summer is getting longer.
A study by researchers at the University of British Columbia found that, between 1990 and 2023, summer-like conditions across the regions between the tropics and the polar circles expanded by roughly six days per decade. That rate is substantially faster than earlier estimates.
The researchers did not define summer by the calendar. Instead, they identified summer as the period when temperatures rise above a location’s historically typical threshold for the warmest part of the year. Using this temperature-based definition, they found that summers across the midlatitudes now last roughly 30 days longer than they did in the 1960s.
The change is occurring at both ends of summer: warm conditions are arriving earlier in the year and lingering later into autumn. The result is not simply a longer calendar season, but a longer period of accumulated heat.
A Longer Summer
• Accelerating seasonal expansion — The UBC study, published in Environmental Research Letters, found that summer length increased by roughly six days per decade from 1990 to 2023. Across the midlatitudes, summer is now about 20 days longer than it was in 1990 and roughly 30 days longer than in the 1960s.
• Summer heat lingering into fall — Climate Central analyzed temperature records from 246 major U.S. cities and found that summer-like temperatures now extend an average of 10 days later into autumn in 227 cities—92% of those analyzed—compared with the early 1970s.
[Pre-Chorus]
And that’s where intuition
(Can lead you astray)
Because complicated systems
(Don’t always behave that way)
[Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Breakdown]
[Half-Time / Spoken Vocal]
Cognition…
What can you process?
(More or less)
Recognition…
(Of what you possess)
Cognitive ability
(Showin’ off its fragility)
[Final Bridge]
[Band Builds / Crowd Vocals]
Think beyond the tribe!
(Think to what you proscribe!)
Think beyond the certainty
(… till you find clarity)
[Final Refrain]
Not simply ignorance
(Often it’s more)
Lacking any tolerance
(Preferring blood and gore)
Cognitive ability
(Lacking sensibility)
Christian nationalism
(Lacking humane vision)
[Outro]
Not simply ignorance
(If it’s on purpose)
Not simply intelligence
(If you choose to lose)
Cognitive ability
(Needs humility)
Reasoning without reflection
(Can become a weapon)
[Organ / Guitar Feedback / Fading Drum Beat]
Cognitive ability
(Showin’ off its fragility)
[Final Whisper]
Cognitive ability…
(Needs humane vision.)
Face-to-face reality
(Moral of the lesson)
About the Song
Cognitive Ability, Christian Nationalism & Climate Change Denial
A 2026 study by sociologist S. L. Perry finds a significant negative association between verbal cognitive ability and Christian nationalist beliefs in the United States.
That finding raises an important question:
What does cognition have to do with climate change denial?
Climate science is extraordinarily complex. Understanding it requires processing interconnected systems, probabilities, feedbacks, long-term trends, and evidence that cannot simply be evaluated through everyday experience.
This creates several pathways toward climate skepticism:
🧠 Intuitive thinking can favor simple narratives over complex scientific evidence.
✝️ Christian nationalist ideology can reinforce distrust of secular scientific and academic institutions.
🛡️ Motivated reasoning can allow people with substantial cognitive ability to construct sophisticated defenses of beliefs that are deeply connected to their political, religious, or cultural identity.
The result is a paradox: Less cognitive capacity can make complex science harder to process. Greater cognitive capacity can make existing beliefs harder to dislodge.
The problem is therefore not simply ignorance.
It is the interaction of cognition, ideology, identity, institutional trust, and reasoning.
The cards are on the table
(The table’s turning round)
The rules aren’t quite stable
(But listen to that sound)
[Verse 1]
We came with empty pockets
(And a head full of dreams)
Life keeps changing channels
(Or so it seems)
You can’t keep every moment
(You can’t hold back the tide)
But you can choose the way
(You take the ride)
[Pre-Chorus]
[Drums Build]
So roll the dice
(Breathe once or twice)
Look around
(You’re alive)
[Refrain]
Let’s…
(Play the game)
Sure bets…
(That’s the name)
Play the game of livin’
(With what we’ve been givin’)
Take love’s advice…
(Come to life)
Come out and play
(Today)
[Verse 2]
We chase tomorrow
(And forget today)
We build our little castles
(Then give them away)
A little bit of kindness
(A little bit of grace)
Can change the whole equation
(Can change the place)
[Refrain]
Let’s…
(Play the game)
No regrets…
(Stayin’ sane)
Play the game of livin’
(With what we’ve been givin’)
Take love’s advice…
(Come to life)
Come out and play
(Today)
[Bridge]
The end of the game
(Isn’t winning)
Never the same…
(Close to beginning)
[Electric Guitar Swell]
Love…
(Love)
Life…
(Life)
Play…
(Away)
… all day
Come alive!
(Thrive!)
Live!
(Live!)
Give!
(Give!)
Love!
(Love!)
Let’s…
(Let’s!)
Play…
(Play!)
The…
Game!
(GAME!)
Of livin’!
[Refrain]
Let’s…
(Play the game)
Sure bets…
(The name)
[Outro]
Play the game of livin’
(With what we’ve been givin’)
Take love’s advice…
(Come to life)
[Verse 1]
High above the valley
(Where the sky flies by)
Something’s disappearing
(Right before our eyes)
Five years gone
(Nineteen point four)
Ice keeps melting
(More and more)
[Refrain]
Yelps!
(From the Swiss Alps)
Hot as hell…
(Fare thee well?)
When the mountains crumble
(Left with a pile of rubble)
No use crying… no use to mumble
(Trouble coming is about to double)
[Verse 2]
Two and a half meters
(Three or four!)
Gone, gone, gone
(And maybe more)
Ten meters vanished
(Where did they go?)
Thirty-three feet
(Down below)
Aletsch!
(Allalin!)
Clariden!
(Rhône!)
[Refrain]
Yelps!
(From the Swiss Alps)
Hot as hell…
(Fare thee well?)
When the mountains crumble
(Left with a pile of rubble)
No use crying… no use to mumble
(Trouble coming is about to double)
[Bridge]
Matterhorn…
Wind torn
(Where did the snow go…?)
Take stock…
(Bare rock…)
Frozen ground…
(Coming down…)
[Bridge 2]
Lose the glacier…
(Are you sure…)
… we’ll endure?
And the system changes us!
(Dangerous!)
Oh, well!
(Fare thee well!)
More energy!
(More melt!)
More melt!
(Danger felt!)
[Final Refrain]
Yelps!
(From the Swiss Alps)
Hot as hell…
(Fare thee well?)
[Outro]
When the mountains crumble
(Left with a pile of rubble)
No use crying… no use to mumble
(Trouble coming is about to double)
Yelps!
(From the Swiss Alps)
Hear that bell…
(Fare thee well?)
When the frozen foundations
(Start to crumble)
Every little warning
(Becomes a rumble)
What the hell?
…fare thee well…
About the Song
How Is the Climate Energy Hitting You?
Swiss Alps: Fare Thee Well?
Swiss glaciers are disappearing at an extraordinary rate.
The Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS) network and the Swiss Academy of Sciences report that Swiss glaciers lost approximately 5.5% of their total ice volume during the first eight months of 2026. That is the second-largest annual percentage loss on record, exceeded only by the exceptional melt of 2022.
The combination of exceptionally low winter snowfall and a record-hot summer has pushed Alpine glaciers into increasingly dangerous territory. Scientists warn that continued warming threatens the long-term survival of many Swiss glaciers.
A Five-Year Avalanche of Ice Loss
The latest measurements reveal how rapidly Switzerland’s frozen water reservoir is shrinking.
Nearly 20% Gone in Five Years
Swiss glaciers have lost approximately 19.4% of their ice mass in just five years.
Percentage Losses Are Accelerating
Although the absolute volume of ice lost in 2026 was lower than during the infamous 2003 heatwave, the percentage loss was substantially greater. The reason is straightforward: Switzerland’s remaining glacier ice reservoir is now dramatically smaller than it was two decades ago.
Meters of Ice Disappearing
Glacier thickness declined by roughly 2.5 to 4 meters (8 to 13 feet) in many areas during 2026, while some glacier tongues retreated by as much as 10 meters (33 feet). Major glaciers, including the Allalin, Clariden, Rhône and Aletsch, experienced severe melting.
The implication is important: as glaciers become smaller, a similar amount of atmospheric heat can produce an increasingly large percentage reduction in the remaining ice.
When the Mountains Begin to Crumble
The damage is not limited to the glaciers themselves.
Extreme warmth is also destabilizing the high Alpine environment by thawing permafrost—the permanently frozen ground and rock that helps stabilize steep mountain slopes.
Bare High Peaks
By late September 2026, the Matterhorn, rising 4,478 meters (14,692 feet), was photographed with exceptionally little snow cover. Persistent snow and ice at high elevations are becoming increasingly vulnerable during extreme warm periods.
Thawing Permafrost
As permafrost thaws, meltwater can penetrate cracks and fractures in mountain rock. The resulting changes in water pressure, ice bonding and rock strength can increase the risk of rockfalls, landslides and other slope failures.
In some locations, exceptionally rapid ground movement has already been observed. At sites such as Spitzerstein above Kandersteg, slopes have reportedly shifted by as much as 70 centimeters per day, demonstrating how quickly Alpine terrain can respond when its frozen foundations deteriorate.
The loss of glacier ice therefore represents more than a change in scenery. It is a change in the physical infrastructure of the European water cycle.
Climate Energy at Work
Glacier loss provides one of the clearest visible examples of how excess climate energy is redistributed through the Earth system.
More atmospheric and oceanic energy → warmer air → reduced snowfall → accelerated glacier melt → exposed darker surfaces → greater solar absorption → further ice loss
At the same time:
Warming → permafrost thaw → weaker mountain structures → increased rockfall and landslide risk
These are not isolated events. They are interacting components of a changing climate system.
The Swiss Alps are effectively losing part of their natural infrastructure in real time.
Fare Thee Well?
Some small, low-elevation Alpine glaciers may already be committed to disappearance under present climate conditions. But the larger question extends far beyond Switzerland.
Every fraction of a degree of additional warming affects glaciers, snowpack, permafrost, water supplies and sea-level rise. The loss of a glacier is therefore not simply the loss of ice. It is the loss of a natural reservoir, a climate regulator, a water-storage system and part of the physical infrastructure on which human societies depend.
The Swiss Alps are telling us something important: climate change isn’t just happening around us. It is changing the systems we depend upon.
[Refrain]
Just like that…
(She’s back)
Summer wasn’t gone
(For long)
… she’s back
Just when I forgot
(She’s so hot)
Bringin’ on fraught
(Hot, hot, hot)
[Verse 2]
Heat comes creeping
(Through the door)
Sweat starts dripping
(More and more)
[Refrain]
Just like that…
(She’s back)
Summer wasn’t gone
(For long)
… she’s back
Just when I forgot
(She’s so hot)
Bringin’ on fraught
(Hot, hot, hot)
[Bridge]
Summer…
You said you were leaving.
(Now we’re here grieving)
What did I miss…
(July for Christmas?)
Hot!
(Hot, hot, hot!)
… she won’t be forgot
[Refrain]
Just like that…
(She’s back)
Summer wasn’t gone
(For long)
… she’s back
[Outro]
Just when I forgot
(She’s so hot)
Bringin’ on fraught
(Hot, hot, hot)
She’s back!
(She’s back!)
Hot, so hot!
(Hot, hot, hot!)
[Surf Guitar Tremolo]
[Ocean Waves]
[Drums Fade]
Just like that…
(She’s back…)
She wasn’t gone…
(For long…)
[Soft Vocal]
…she’s back.
[Final Guitar Chord]
[Silence]
[End]
About the Song
Human-caused climate change is expanding the global summer season by roughly six days longer per decade since 1990, causing summer weather to arrive earlier and linger much later into the year.
As global greenhouse gas emissions trap heat in the atmosphere, seasonal cycles are changing faster than previously measured. This shift alters traditional calendar boundaries and reshapes the planet’s climate patterns.
• Total seasonal gain – Research published by the University of British Columbia in Environmental Research Letters shows that summer-like weather in the midlatitudes lasts roughly 30 days longer today than it did in the 1960s.
• Lingering fall heat – Data from Climate Central indicates that summer temperatures now extend an average of 10 days later into autumn across a vast majority of analyzed U.S. cities.
