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Bumpy Road
Bumpy-Road-Best-Of.mp3
Bumpy-Road-Best-Of.mp4
Bumpy-Road.mp3
Bumpy-Road.mp4
Bumpy-Road-intro.mp3
[Intro]
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
[Verse 1]
Hidden bumps
(And tipping points)
Heart jumps
(Painful joints)
[Bridge]
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
[Chorus]
Momentum matters
(Impacts are magnified)
Momentum matters
(Ignorance amplified)
[Verse 2]
No, the road’s not smooth
(Hard to find your groove)
Living in the clarity
(Of nonlinearity)
[Bridge]
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
[Chorus]
Momentum matters
(Impacts are magnified)
Momentum matters
(Ignorance amplified)
[Outro]
Hmmm… (momentum)
Swingin’ (the pendulum)
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
(And my head…)
Increasingly lumpy
ABOUT THE SONG AND THE SCIENCE
A “bumpy road ahead” works as a metaphor for nonlinear climate change because it captures three essential features of how nonlinear systems behave:
1. The road isn’t smooth → Climate change doesn’t progress smoothly
A bumpy road has sudden jolts, unexpected drops, and irregular shocks.
Likewise, climate change in a nonlinear system does not increase in a steady, predictable line. Instead, it produces jumps, surges, and abrupt shifts—for example:
Rapid intensification of storms
Sudden ice-sheet instability
Heatwaves that spike far beyond trend lines
Rainfall extremes that escalate faster than models predicted
2. Small steering changes can cause big jolts → Small warming can trigger big impacts
On a bumpy road, even minor changes in speed or position can send the car lurching.
In nonlinear climate systems, small temperature increases can trigger outsized responses:
+0.5°C can push coral reefs from stressed to dead
A narrow band of warming can destabilize permafrost or jet streams
Slight ocean-heat increases can collapse ice shelves
Nonlinearity = impacts grow faster than causes.
3. Hidden bumps → Hidden tipping points
Drivers can hit bumps they didn’t see coming.
Climate systems contain tipping points that aren’t always visible until they’re crossed:
Greenland’s melt threshold
Amazon rainforest dieback
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown
Once you hit one, you feel it immediately—and you can’t “un-hit” it.
4. Momentum matters
If you’re going too fast on a bumpy road, the impacts are magnified.
Likewise, the more greenhouse gases accumulate, the more momentum the climate system gains, and the more violent each “bump” becomes.
5. Recovery becomes harder after each shock
On a rough road, the car and suspension wear down.
In climate terms, ecosystems and infrastructure weaken, making each new shock more damaging than the last.
* 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.
What Can I Do?
The single most important action you can take to help address the climate crisis is simple: stop burning fossil fuels.
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 | Soil | Rising Sea Level | Food and Water | Updates
The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment
From the album “Nonlinear“
View all episodes
By Bumpy-Road-Best-Of.mp3
Bumpy-Road-Best-Of.mp4
Bumpy-Road.mp3
Bumpy-Road.mp4
Bumpy-Road-intro.mp3
[Intro]
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
[Verse 1]
Hidden bumps
(And tipping points)
Heart jumps
(Painful joints)
[Bridge]
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
[Chorus]
Momentum matters
(Impacts are magnified)
Momentum matters
(Ignorance amplified)
[Verse 2]
No, the road’s not smooth
(Hard to find your groove)
Living in the clarity
(Of nonlinearity)
[Bridge]
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
[Chorus]
Momentum matters
(Impacts are magnified)
Momentum matters
(Ignorance amplified)
[Outro]
Hmmm… (momentum)
Swingin’ (the pendulum)
Have you heard it said
(The road ahead)
Is bumpy
(And my head…)
Increasingly lumpy
ABOUT THE SONG AND THE SCIENCE
A “bumpy road ahead” works as a metaphor for nonlinear climate change because it captures three essential features of how nonlinear systems behave:
1. The road isn’t smooth → Climate change doesn’t progress smoothly
A bumpy road has sudden jolts, unexpected drops, and irregular shocks.
Likewise, climate change in a nonlinear system does not increase in a steady, predictable line. Instead, it produces jumps, surges, and abrupt shifts—for example:
Rapid intensification of storms
Sudden ice-sheet instability
Heatwaves that spike far beyond trend lines
Rainfall extremes that escalate faster than models predicted
2. Small steering changes can cause big jolts → Small warming can trigger big impacts
On a bumpy road, even minor changes in speed or position can send the car lurching.
In nonlinear climate systems, small temperature increases can trigger outsized responses:
+0.5°C can push coral reefs from stressed to dead
A narrow band of warming can destabilize permafrost or jet streams
Slight ocean-heat increases can collapse ice shelves
Nonlinearity = impacts grow faster than causes.
3. Hidden bumps → Hidden tipping points
Drivers can hit bumps they didn’t see coming.
Climate systems contain tipping points that aren’t always visible until they’re crossed:
Greenland’s melt threshold
Amazon rainforest dieback
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation slowdown
Once you hit one, you feel it immediately—and you can’t “un-hit” it.
4. Momentum matters
If you’re going too fast on a bumpy road, the impacts are magnified.
Likewise, the more greenhouse gases accumulate, the more momentum the climate system gains, and the more violent each “bump” becomes.
5. Recovery becomes harder after each shock
On a rough road, the car and suspension wear down.
In climate terms, ecosystems and infrastructure weaken, making each new shock more damaging than the last.
* 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.
What Can I Do?
The single most important action you can take to help address the climate crisis is simple: stop burning fossil fuels.
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 | Soil | Rising Sea Level | Food and Water | Updates
The Human Induced Climate Change Experiment
From the album “Nonlinear“