The Crash Course - Chris Martenson [0]
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I : How to Approach the Next Twenty Years
Chapter 1 : The Coming Storm
Chapter 2 : The Lens: How to See the Future
Chapter 3 : A World Worth Inheriting
Chapter 4 : Trust Yourself
Part II : Foundation
Chapter 5 : Dangerous Exponentials
The Concept of Exponential Growth
Speeding Up
Making It Real
Surrounded by Exponentials
The Rule of 70
Your Exponential World
Chapter 6 : An Inconvenient Lie: The Truth about Growth
Chapter 7 : Our Money System
Full Faith and Credit
How Hyperinflation Happens
Money Creation
The Fed
Two Kinds of Money—One Exponential System
Chapter 8 : Problems and Predicaments
Chapter 9 : What Is Wealth? (Hint: It’s Not Money)
A Hierarchy of Wealth
Money and Wealth
The Nature of Wealth
Part III : Economy
Chapter 10 : Debt
What Is Debt?
The Crisis Explained in One Chart
Chapter 11 : The Great Credit Bubble
What Is a Bubble?
Exponential Debt
Withering Heights
Chapter 12 : Like a Moth to Flame: Our Destructive Tendency to Print
Moths
Flames
Quantitative Easing
Chapter 13 : Fuzzy Numbers
Administrative Bias
Inflation
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Inflation and GDP
And All the Rest
Chapter 14 : Starting the Race with Our Shoes Tied Together
A National Failure to Save
Summing It Up
Part IV : Energy
Chapter 15 : Energy and the Economy
Even Sand Is Too Complicated
The Master Resource
Energy Budgeting
Net Energy
The Economy and Energy
We Live Like Gods
Chapter 16 : Peak Oil
Petro-Realities
It’s Not “Running Out”
Find First, Pump Second
Oil and GDP
Oil Demand
Oil Production
The Oil Production Output Gap
Existing Oil Fields in Decline
Peak Exports
The Ugly Power of Compounding
Chapter 17 : Necessary but Insufficient: Coal, Nuclear, and Alternatives
Simple Math
The Reality—Time, Scale, Cost
The Nuclear Option
The Coal Story
The Alternatives
Natural Gas
Conclusion
Chapter 18 : Why Technology Can’t Fix This
Fact 1—Technology Does Not Create Energy
Fact 2—Transforming Energy Is Expensive
Fact 3—Energy Transitions Take Time
Why Technology Can’t Fix This
Part V : Environment
Chapter 19 : Minerals: Gone with the Wind
Quantity and Quality (Again)
Economic Growth and Minerals
The End of an Epoch
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Gone with the Wind
Chapter 20 : Soil: Thin, Thinner, Gone
The Coming Food Challenge
The Important Difference Between Soil and Dirt
Exporting Nutrients
The High (Energy) Cost of Low-Cost Fertilizers
Soil Erosion and Desertification
Conclusion
Chapter 21 : Parched: The Coming Water Wars
Running Dry
What Lies Beneath
Exporting Water—The Food Story
The Food Bubble
Energy and Water
The Future of Water
Chapter 22 : All Fished Out
The Air You Breathe
The Bottom Line
Part VI : Convergence
Chapter 23 : Convergence: Why the Twenty–Teens Will Be Difficult
The Foundation
“Unsustainable”
Convergence: The Timeline
This Time Is Different
Chapter 24 : Closing the Book on Growth
Chapter 25 : Future Scenarios
Scenario 1: A Slow Tumble
Scenario 2—Peak Oil Recognition and a Hard Landing
Scenario 3: The Undulating Plateau
Prepare to Be Surprised
Stay Alert
Part VII : What Should I Do?
Chapter 26 : The Good News: We Already Have Everything We Need
Technology
Food
Energy
Economy and Money
Population
Kicking and Screaming
The Good News. . .
Chapter 27 : What Should I Do?
Time to Get a Little Insurance
Becoming Resilient
Insufficient, but Necessary
Set Targets
Being in Service
Step Zero
The Importance of Community
Protecting Your Wealth
What to Look for if Relocating
Chapter 28 : The