THE HEAT AND THE FURY

As a journalist on the climate security beat, Peter Schwartzstein has been chased by kidnappers, badly beaten, detained by police, and told, in no uncertain terms, that he was no longer welcome in certain countries. Yet these personal brushes with violence are simply a hint of the conflict simmering in our warming world.

Schwartzstein has visited ravaged Iraqi towns where ISIS used drought as a recruiting tool and weapon of terror. In Bangladesh, he has interviewed farmers-turned-pirates who can no longer make a living off the land and instead make it off bloody ransoms. Security forces have blocked him from a dam being constructed along the Nile that has brought Egypt and Ethiopia to the brink of war. And he has heard the fear in the voices of women from around the world who say their husbands' tempers flare when the temperature ticks up. He not only puts readers on the frontlines of climate violence but gives us the context to make sense of seemingly senseless acts. As Schwartzstein deftly shows, climate change is often the spark that ignites long smoldering fires, the extra shove that pushes individuals, communities, and even nations over the line between frustration and lethal fury. What, he asks, can ratchet down the aggression? Can cooperation on climate actually become a salve to heal old wounds? There are no easy answers on a planet that is fast becoming a powder keg. But Schwartzstein's incisive analysis of geopolitics, unparalleled on-the-ground reporting, and keen sense of human nature offer the clearest picture to date of the violence that threatens us all. Peter Schwartzstein is a British-American journalist and environmental consultant. He writes about regional environment and geopolitical issues, with a focus on water, the conflict-climate nexus, and food security. His work regularly appears in National Geographic, Foreign Policy, Newsweek, and the BBC. His work has also been published by The Atlantic, the New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, WIRED, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, Politico, Le Monde Diplomatique, NPR, Outside, Quartz, and The Daily Beast, among many other outlets. His award-winning reportage has been supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, the Rory Peck Trust, the Society for Environmental Journalists, and the Earth Journalism Network. He was selected as a TED fellow in 2020.