The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment Read Online Free PDF Page A

misleading? I would change my thinking, of course. But as the information has rolled in over the past several years, the validity of this view has only been confirmed. While I am open to the possibility that I may not have everything exactly right, I will present enough solid, fact-based evidence that a reasonable and prudent adult should at least step back, consider the matter, and not reject it out of hand simply because it might seem to be unthinkable.
     
    If I am right, then the next 20 years are going to be completely unlike the last 20 years, and we will be grateful for the foresight that we can gain through the lens of the three Es.
     

CHAPTER 3
     
    A World Worth Inheriting
     
    The reason I have chosen this path in life over others that may have been easier or cushier is to fulfill my one highest goal: I want to create a world worth inheriting. Everything else pales in comparison.
     
    I have three children, and I have every expectation of having grandchildren someday. I fervently wish for them to have the same opportunities that I have enjoyed. But my goal extends well beyond my small clan. I want your children and grandchildren to have an abundant world filled with meaningful relationships, activities, and careers where they can use their gifts and talents. I believe that a world in which everyone enjoys some degree of prosperity will enrich life for all of us, our children and grandchildren, and those who come after them.
     
    I am concerned that we are on a path that will deliver the opposite of what I hope for. My worry is that the reflexive response of those in power will be to rather defensively attempt to perpetuate the status quo and that their earnest attempts to conduct business as usual for another decade will unquestionably lead to a world of less prosperity, not more. If we pursue this policy of attempting to sustain the unsustainable, what we face is a future filled with scarcity, conflict, and diminished opportunities. I cannot accept those outcomes.
     
    But how can we change the future? Where do we even start? We must begin by taking an unflinching look at our predicament and facing it squarely. No more kicking the can down the road for the next generation to deal with, and no more pretending that real issues don’t exist. The measure of any generation is what it does with what it has. Luckily, we still have abundant natural resources, and we have all the information we need to make a better future. But our window of opportunity is closing rapidly. Solutions are becoming fewer, and options are shrinking. Someday they will disappear entirely, our opportunities to be proactive will have been permanently squandered, and we will be left to choose among an unpleasant palette of reactions to an unfortunate set of circumstances that are mostly out of our control.
     
    To me, a world worth inheriting is one where the inhabitants are living within their economic and natural budgets. It is a stable world where people and businesses can plan for the future because they can trust what will be there when they arrive. It is a world in which the brittle architecture of our just-in-time food systems and businesses is replaced by robust, sustainable, locally focused operations. In this world worth inheriting, communities take on more responsibility for their destinies, and stronger and more fulfilling relationships develop among neighbors.
     
    Right now we cannot even count on our money, the sacred contract that binds us all, to be there for us in any recognizable form in the future. Perhaps it will be worth a lot less; perhaps it will be replaced entirely. These are both possible and even likely outcomes given our current economic trajectory, and both are unacceptable. We can do better, and we deserve better.
     
    But the issues extend well beyond just our money, and the sooner we recognize the dimensions of our predicament, the sooner we can get on with the work of responding intelligently to the numerous