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

New Security Beat 

Jan 12, 2021

How We Misunderstand the Magnitude of Climate Risks – and Why That Contributes to Controversy

The Syrian civil war has raged for almost a decade now, and in the climate security community it can feel as if we’ve spent at least that long arguing about its causes. For every claim about the impact…

The Century Foundation 

Dec 15, 2020

Bringing the Natural World into America’s Middle East Policy: Averting a Crisis Foretold

​Today, the Middle East faces a severe security concern that is crystalizing in plain view: the human impact of a rapidly changing natural world.

The region, home to some of the world’s…

National Geographic 

Nov 12, 2020

How Iran is destroying its once thriving environmental movement

Iran once boasted one of the greenest governments. But persecution, paranoia, and war have sunk the Middle East’s most vital conservation programs.

Center for Climate & Security 

Jul 16, 2020

Why the Nile Constitutes a New Kind of Water Dispute – and Why That’s Dangerous

​Ever since workers first broke ground on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in 2011, international commenters have fixated on the Nile as a possible harbinger of future

The Century Foundation 

Jul 7, 2020

The Authoritarian War on Environmental Journalism

In recent years, journalists in Egypt have fallen afoul of the state while covering almost every environmental issue imaginable. One reporter was

Smithsonian 

Jun 29, 2020

How Urban Design Can Make or Break Protests

Cities’ geography can aid, underscore or discourage a protest movement’s success

Scientific American 

May 22, 2020

Coronavirus Pandemic Threatens to Derail Polio Eradication—but There’s a Silver Lining

COVID-19 has stifled the world’s largest immunization program. Yet polio’s vast workforce is also helping in the fight against the new disease

National Geographic 

May 6, 2020

World’s rarest seal finds refuge on notorious prison island

After decades of hunting, Mediterranean monk seals now have a sanctuary on the “Alcatraz of Greece.” But will it be enough to prevent their extinction?

New York Times 

Jan 11, 2020

The Merchants of Thirst

In Nepal and many other countries, private tanker operators profit from growing water scarcity.