Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Part I How to Approach the Next Twenty Years

Chapter 1 The Coming Storm 3

Chapter 2 The Lens: How to See the Future 7

Chapter 3 A World Worth Inheriting 11

Chapter 4 Trust Yourself 15

Part II Foundation

Chapter 5 Dangerous Exponentials 21

Chapter 6 An Inconvenient Lie: The Truth about Growth 35

Chapter 7 Our Money System 41

Chapter 8 Problems and Predicaments 53

Chapter 9 What is Wealth? (Hint: It’s Not Money) 57

Part III Economy

Chapter 10 Debt 65

Chapter 11 The Great Credit Bubble 79

Chapter 12 Like a Moth to Flame: Our Destructive Tendency to Print 95

Chapter 13 Fuzzy Numbers 103

Chapter 14 Starting the Race with Our Shoes Tied Together 115

Part IV Energy

Chapter 15 Energy and the Economy 125

Chapter 16 Peak Oil 141

Chapter 17 Necessary but Insufficient: Coal, Nuclear, and Alternatives 159

Chapter 18 Why Technology Can’t Fix This 177

Part V Environment

Chapter 19 Minerals: Gone with the Wind 187

Chapter 20 Soil: Thin, Thinner, Gone 197

Chapter 21 Parched: The Coming Water Wars 205

Chapter 22 All Fished Out 213

Part VI Convergence

Chapter 23 Convergence: Why the Twenty–Teens Will Be Difficult 219

Chapter 24 Closing the Book on Growth 227

Chapter 25 Future Scenarios 231

Part VII What Should I Do?

Chapter 26 The Good News: We Already Have Everything We Need 249

Chapter 27 What Should I Do? 255

Chapter 28 The Opportunities 267

Appendix 277

Notes 279

Index 291

About the Author

CHRIS MARTENSON, PhD, MBA, is an economic researcher and futurist who speaks to audiences around the world on The Crash Course . He runs PeakProsperity.com, a popular website on the global economy. Chris began his career as a scientist, earning a PhD in pathology from Duke University and an MBA from Cornell. He became vice president of a large international company and believed he had achieved the American Dream, living with his family in a large waterfront home in Connecticut. He was jolted out of complacency by the bear market of 2001 and used his background in finance to investigate the workings of our monetary system. What he discovered changed his life. Today Chris lives with his wife, Becca, and their three kids in rural Massachusetts, where they enjoy a more resilient and independent lifestyle, with fewer things, better relationships with their neighbors, and a higher quality of life.