Peter
Schwartzstein

Enviro journalist & researcher, think tanker @ The Wilson Center & @ Center for Climate & Security, Author of 'The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence'

@pschwartzstein

Latest Stories

Center for Climate & Security 

Apr 23, 2025

Destabilization From ‘Within’: A “Termite Theory” of Climate’s Pathway to Violence

When we talk about climate’s contribution to violence, we generally characterize these stresses as external forces, as destabilizers applying pressure to already ‘messy’ socio-political contexts from above or outside. And there’s good reason for that categorization. It’s...

Columbia Journalism Review 

Apr 22, 2025

How Climate Change Foils Climate Reporting

Floods are hard to cover when the road is washed out.

Environment & Security 

Nov 15, 2024

On state securitization, artificial NGOs, and environmental journalism: An interview

Abstract This is an interview with environmental journalist Peter Schwartzstein. In the interview, Schwartzstein discusses how states are increasingly securitizing and weaponizing climate change and the environment. This can happen directly, for instance when militaries prepare for climate change or...

Financial Times 

Nov 11, 2024

Record global warming risks aggravating war and violence

At COP29, negotiators will be discussing the fate of a planet already riddled with climate-related conflict

The Wilson Center 

Nov 1, 2024

The Rise, Fall, and Possible Rise Again of the Middle East’s Most Ambitious Environment Scheme

For an initiative that has the potential to rework the Middle East, Project Prosperity would leave a remarkably small imprint on the ground. In its initial phase, Israel would build a new desalination facility on the Mediterranean coast south of...

Center for Climate & Security 

Oct 17, 2024

Climate Change & Crime: A big, bad, largely overlooked nexus

The greater the impact of climate change, the greater our awareness of the security challenges it’s leaving in its wake. In recent years, there has been a relative deluge of research in this space. However, while most of that...

Latest from the Blog

Apr 5, 2020

The Perfect Storm: Coronavirus and Climate Change in the Middle East

The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus has upended our lives, making a mockery of our illusions of permanence and stability. Economies that only last month appeared solid are teetering. Healthcare systems that were supposed to be resilient are proving anything but. For many of us in the environmental field,...
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Feb 6, 2020

As the Risk of a ‘Water War’ Fades, Is It Too Late to Save the Nile?

Article first featured on World Politics Review At first glance, the Nile valley at Wad Ramli, an hour’s drive north of Khartoum, looks as lush and fertile as ever. Date palms sag, heavy with fruit along the banks. Neat rows of barley await harvesting in the heat. With thousands...
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