Read The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment Online

Authors: Chris Martenson

Tags: #General, #Economic Conditions, #Business & Economics, #Economics, #Development, #Forecasting, #Sustainable Development, #Economic Development, #Economic Forecasting - United States, #United States, #Sustainable Development - United States, #Economic Forecasting, #United States - Economic Conditions - 2009

The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment

BOOK: The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment
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Contents

 

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

BOOK: The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment
9.86Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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