Mick Winter

As I sip my morning espresso, I have a brief moment of longing for an earlier time when I could make my stovetop coffee quickly on a gas burner. It takes a lot longer using this electric one. Little did we know that gas was right behind oil in peaking. Fortunately we finally have plenty of solar-produced electricity and, once again, access to coffee. So it’s a minor inconvenience, but just another reminder of things we used to take for granted.

Well, first of all, it’s funny. Really. I don’t mean it’s filled with jokes, but Dmitry Orlov has a very humorous and biting style. This humorous approach serves two important purposes: 1) It makes the book enjoyable to read. 2) It helps the reader develop a certain healthy detachment from the subject matter.

At first I felt this book wasn’t enough for what is needed. Then reality straightened me out.

Kunstler’s novel brings to life a community and world that Kunstler himself has created – informed by his many years of study of our society, its built environment, and the Peak Oil threat. He has tempered his usual neo-Gonzo writing style and created interesting characters with depth and complexity.

After the Peak is a mock-TV news program, presented as if live from a local television station in North Carolina. The time is “one year from today”. Worldwide oil production has peaked and is declining.

I have seen a number of films on Peak Oil, climate change and the other ills of our society and planet, but none has moved me so much as this one.