The Crash Course

Discover how and why the world's crises are interconnected and what you can do to prepare for the next one.

The world is experiencing a series of crises. In The Crash Course: An Honest Approach to Facing the Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment, Revised Edition, veteran executive and strategist Chris Martenson delivers an incisive and eye-opening exploration that explains why the reader needs to understand that it is the interconnectedness of the various crises that matters most. From energy shortages to climate instability, financial crises, supply chain disruptions, pandemics, war, and crop failures, you'll discover the common factor that is driving them all and how to adapt to volatile new realities and safeguard your own personal wealth, health, and community.

In the book, you'll find effective solutions for living with unpredictability and change, as well as:
- A workable framework for understanding the "how" and "why" of dramatic societal, environmental, and economic transformation
- A rich set of solutions, complete with examples, you can use to draw inspiration and motivation to act in your own life
- An expansive amount of new material, fully updated since the last edition

A transformative and thought-provoking strategic playbook for managing increasingly unexpected events, crises, and revolutions, The Crash Course is an essential resource for anyone concerned about their retirement savings, the world's environment, as well as anyone hoping to become more independent and self-reliant.

Acknowledgments   vii
Introduction   ix

Part I How to Approach the Next Twenty Years   1
1. The Coming Storm   3
2. The Lens: How to See the Future   7
3. A World Worth Inheriting   11
4. Trust Yourself   14

Part II Foundation   21
5. Dangerous Exponentials   23
6. Problems versus Predicaments   38
7. An Inconvenient Lie: The Truth About Growth   42
8. Complex Systems   47
9. Our Money System   55
10. What Is Wealth? (Hint: It’s Not Money)   69

Part III Economy   75
11. Debt   77
12. The Great Credit Bubble   90
13. Like a Moth to Flame: Our Destructive Tendency to Print   100
14. Fuzzy Numbers   109
15. Crumbling Before Our Eyes: The Story of Concrete   118

Pa.rt IV Energy   123
16. Energy and the Economy   125
17. Peak Oil   141
18. Shale Oil   160
19. Necessary but Insufficient: Clean Energy, Nuclear, and Coal   166
20. Why Technology Can’t Fix This   191

Part V Environment   199
21. Minerals: Gone with the Wind   201
22. Soil: Thin, Thinner, Gone   211
23. Parched: The Coming Water Wars   219
24. All Fished Out   226
25. What Do You Mean We’re Running Out of Sand? Strange but True   231

Part VI Convergence   233
26. Where Have All the Insects Gone? Silence of the Lamps   235
27. The Bumpy Path to 2030   238

Part VII What Should I Do?   247
28. The Good News: We Already Have Everything We Need   249
29. Closing the Book on Growth   257
30. What Should I Do?   260
31. Build Up Your Capital!   270

Appendix   291
Notes   293
Index   303