Feedback-Phase-Best-Of.mp3
Feedback-Phase-Best-Of.mp4
Feedback-Phase.mp3
Feedback-Phase.mp4
In a feedback phase
Did you pick up
(On our pickup)
Can you hear that sound
(For what it’s worth)
If only the Earth
(Had a phase button)
… cancel out the feedback
(From our climate attack)
In a feedback phase
Screeching and humming
(Oh the down dumbing)
Have to hold our ears
(For what it’s worth)
If only the Earth
(Had a phase button)
… cancel out the feedback
(From our climate attack)
In a feedback phase
(For what it’s worth)
If only the Earth
(Had a phase button)
… cancel out the feedback
(From our climate attack)
In a feedback phase
(Holding in the rays)
Can’t seem to fade out
(Knowing that it’s about)
Our feedback phase
(Intensifying ways)
Can’t bear it any more
(Yet look what’s in store)
A phase button (or switch) on an acoustic-electric guitar reverses the polarity of the pickup’s signal to cancel out and reduce amplifier feedback. This song is about applying the same principle to human amplified climate feedback loops.
Global Runaway Feedbacks
If multiple tipping points reinforce each other, the climate may enter a self-perpetuating heating cycle beyond human control. The main candidates include:
Our First Glimpse of Runaway Feedbacks
Permafrost: From Slow Thaw to Year-Round Fire
The permafrost offers one of the clearest examples of the widening gap between theory and reality:
This introduces new scientific uncertainties:
The key point is clear: the pace of greenhouse gas release is orders of magnitude faster than earlier models assumed. These feedbacks are not hypothetical–they are already active.
Ozone: Intertwined Feedbacks with Hidden Costs
Permafrost fires are only one piece of the puzzle. Another, less understood feedback arises from tropospheric ozone. While CO2 is essential for photosynthesis, fossil fuel combustion does not just add CO2–it also drives chemical reactions that increase ground-level ozone, a powerful phytotoxin. Unlike protective stratospheric ozone, tropospheric ozone damages living tissues, including crops, forests, and grasslands.
Decades of research show that ozone exposure can reduce plant growth by 10-40%, depending on species and exposure levels. In many cases, ozone exposure doesn’t merely stunt growth–it kills plants outright, either through direct poisoning of leaves and roots or by weakening their resilience to drought, heat, pests, and disease. This compounds ecosystem vulnerability, undermining the agricultural and natural systems that sustain humanity.
These feedbacks are deeply interconnected. Fossil fuel combustion increases CO2, which drives warming, while simultaneously producing tropospheric ozone, a potent plant toxin. In fact, all forms of carbon combustion generate ozone precursors — and less efficient forms, such as ethanol and other plant-based fuels, can produce even more ozone per unit of energy released due to incomplete combustion. Ozone-stressed ecosystems lose resilience, making them more vulnerable to drought, pests, and wildfire. Wildfires then feed back by releasing massive amounts of CO2 and generating additional ozone, compounding the stress on vegetation. These intertwined feedbacks are pushing Earth toward a state of compound, cascading instability, where multiple reinforcing processes accelerate climate disruption beyond linear prediction.
* Our probabilistic, ensemble-based climate model — which incorporates complex socio-economic and ecological feedback loops within a dynamic, nonlinear system — projects that global temperatures are becoming unsustainable this century. This far exceeds earlier estimates of a 4°C rise over the next thousand years, highlighting a dramatic acceleration in global warming. We are now entering a phase of compound, cascading collapse, where climate, ecological, and societal systems destabilize through interlinked, self-reinforcing feedback loops.
Tipping points and feedback loops drive the acceleration of climate change. When one tipping point is breached and triggers others, the cascading collapse is known as the Domino Effect.
The Climate Crisis: Violent Rain | Deadly Humid Heat | Health Collapse | Extreme Weather Events | Insurance | Trees and Deforestation | Rising Sea Level | Food and Water The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment
