Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World

The book that inspired the movie Collapse. The world is running short of energy-especially cheap, easy-to-find oil. Shortages, along with resulting price increases, threaten industrialized civilization, the global economy, and our entire way of life. In Confronting Collapse, author Michael C. Ruppert, a former LAPD narcotics officer turned investigative journalist, details the intricate connections between money and energy, including the ways in which oil shortages and price spikes triggered the economic crash that began in September 2008. Given the 96 percent correlation between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions and the unlikelihood of economic growth without a spike in energy use, Ruppert argues that we are not, in fact, on the verge of economic recovery, but on the verge of complete collapse. Ruppert's truth is not merely inconvenient. It is utterly devastating. But there is still hope. Ruppert outlines a 25-point plan of action, including the creation of a second strategic petroleum reserve for the use of state and local governments, the immediate implementation of a national Feed-in Tariff mandating that electric utilities pay 3 percent above market rates for all surplus electricity generated from renewable sources, a thorough assessment of soil conditions nationwide, and an emergency action plan for soil restoration and sustainable agriculture.

Table of Contents:
1. The need for leadership 2. Thinking like a President in the face of a global problem 3. Depletion: refilling Niagara Falls with a garden hose 4. Reserve estimates: playing a fool's game with numbers 5. Infrastructures and the grid 6. Iraq 7. Saudi Arabia 8. Food 9. Evaluating alternative energies 10. The alternatives 11. Localization: the alternative to the alternatives 12. Money 13. Foreign policy 14. Setting the policy 15. An emergency 25-point plan for action