Rising Sea Levels: Friday Faithfuls

Written for the 11/7/25 edition of Friday Faithfuls:
“Rising Sea Levels”. Here’s my response.

Professor Jim Adams always gives us something to think about! This week at Friday Faithfuls, Jim has asked us to ponder the theme “Rising Sea Levels” and to respond by writing about anything relevant to the subject of global warming/climate change.

John Grant is an American singer-songwriter known for his work in alternative rock, folk, and synth-pop, both as a solo artist and formerly with the band The Czars. His songs are deeply personal, often with introspective lyrics that blend wit, sarcasm, and emotional vulnerability. His music frequently tackles heavy topics such as identity, mental health, and societal issues with a mix of sincerity and dark humor. Grant often uses humor and irony as tools to process pain or critique society; he tends to approach such topics with a personal, offbeat lens rather than direct activism.

In his song “Global Warming”, Grant addresses the topic of climate change with a blend of absurdity and melancholy. The song includes surreal imagery and a resigned, almost fatalistic perspective on humanity’s environmental impact. Lines like “I’m gonna miss the polar bears / And I’m gonna miss the ice caps” are delivered with a mournful yet slightly detached tone, making the song feel less like a straightforward protest and more like a wry commentary on the absurdity of the crisis …. or humanity’s inadequate response to it. The song “Global Warming” appears on his 2018 album Love Is Magic.

This is “Global Warming” by John Grant

LYRICS

You people and your cute little terms you like to throw around and make everybody squirm
Upper class, middle class, lower class, Sassafras
Everybody these days thinks that they’re a bad-ass
How am I supposed to live in a world
with no Madeline Kahn my favourite girl is gone
And Bonnie Doone’s is now an Auto Aone,
31 is trash and now I just want to be left alone

Global warming is ruining my fair complexion
Augmenting all my imperfections
And Brazil does not need more encouragement
Global warming encourages slack jawed troglodytes
To leave their homes with guns and knives
In search of bodily refreshments and some homicide

I’m so sick of hearing people talk about the sun
They sound like a bunch of Aztec Indians
And all they do is hang out clogging up the streets
Congratulating each other on their pedicured feet
Sure I like to see the fella’s skateboarding their best
Stripped down to their shorts so they can work on their tans
I know I shouldn’t care cause I’m a taken man
But I guess you can look, nobody said that you can’t

Global warming is ruining my fair complexion
Augmenting all my imperfections
And Brazil does not need more encouragement
Global warming encourages slack jawed troglodytes
To leave their homes with guns and knives
In search of bodily refreshments and some homicide

All I’ve got are first world problems
I guess I better get some more third world kind

^{Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: John William Grant
Global Warming lyrics © Showpony Music Limited}

Rising Sea Levels

Thanks to Jim Adams for keeping us aware and looking for answers. And thanks to you all for stopping by for a look and a listen.

That’s all she wrote, kids. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All rights reserved for Nancy Richy and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.