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, Revised Edition 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.
CHRIS MARTENSON, PhD (Duke), MBA (Cornell), is a former Vice President at SAIC, worked for Pfizer, and created the viral video series, The Crash Course, which has been viewed by millions of people and translated into 4 languages. He is a world-class communicator and dot-connector, a sought-after writer and speaker, and is the host of the online resilience community at peakprosperity.com.
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
Chapter 6 Problems versus Predicaments
Chapter 7 An Inconvenient Lie: The Truth about Growth
Chapter 8 Complex Systems
Chapter 9 Our Money System
Chapter 10 What Is Wealth? (Hint: It's Not Money)
Part III: Economy
Chapter 11 Debt
Chapter 12 The Great Credit Bubble
Chapter 13 Like a Moth to Flame: Our Destructive Tendency to Print
Chapter 14 Fuzzy Numbers
Chapter 15 Crumbling Before Our Eyes: The Story of Concrete
Part IV: Energy
Chapter 16 Energy and the Economy
Chapter 17 Peak Oil
Chapter 18 Shale Oil
Chapter 19 Necessary but Insufficient: Coal, Nuclear, and Alternatives
Chapter 20 Why Technology Can't Fix This
Part V: Environment
Chapter 21 Minerals: Gone with the Wind
Chapter 22 Soil: Thin, Thinner, Gone
Chapter 23 Parched: The Coming Water Wars
Chapter 24 All Fished Out
Chapter 25 What Do You Mean We’re Running Out of Sand? Strange but True
Part VI: Convergence
Chapter 26 Where Have All the Insects Gone? Silence of the Lamps
Chapter 27 The Bumpy Path to 2030
Part VII: What Should I Do?
Chapter 28 The Good News
Chapter 29 Closing the Book on Growth
Chapter 30 What Should I Do?
Chapter 31: Build Up Your Capital!
Appendix
Notes
Index
Other versions by this Author