Peter
Schwartzstein

Environmental journalist @NatGeo, @NYT, @bbc etc. Global Fellow @ The Wilson Center, Fellow @ Center for Climate & Security

@pschwartzstein

Latest Stories

National Geographic 

Oct 14, 2019

Indigenous farming practices failing as climate change disrupts seasons

Farmers around the world rely on millennia-old wisdom to guide their planting. Scrambled weather and seasons are forcing them into uncharted territory.

Center for Climate & Security 

Sep 9, 2019

How Jordan’s Climate and Water Crisis Threatens its Fragile Peace

For years, security service recruitment has masked climate instability in rural Jordan. Now that strategy is breaking down and no one knows what will take its place.

Smithsonian 

Sep 3, 2019

What the Restoration of Iraq’s Oldest University Says About the Nation’s Future

The Mustansiriya has withstood centuries of war, floods and architectural butchery, but can it survive its own restoration?

National Geographic 

Jul 22, 2019

Iraq races to save last of Middle East's forests from burning

Firefighters and police are up against illegal loggers, border guards—and ISIS.

National Geographic 

Jun 17, 2019

This vanishing forest protects the coasts—and lives—of two countries

Rising waters and illicit logging are killing the trees in the Sundarbans, the natural wall that protects the India-Bangladesh coast.

National Geographic 

Apr 9, 2019

An invasive, thorny tree is taking over Africa—can it be stopped?

Mesquite was introduced on purpose from the New World, but the dream of a helpful tree soon turned into a nightmare.

Bloomberg Businessweek 

Apr 2, 2019

Sudan’s Bid to Feed the Middle East Left Its Own People Furious

The country could be one of the world’s great breadbaskets. Instead, land disputes and steep food prices have pushed it to the brink.

The Atlantic 

Mar 30, 2019

The Middle East’s Authoritarians Have Come for Conservationists

Environmental activists pushing for clean water, restrictions on poaching, and action on climate change have faced prison—or worse

Atlantic Community 

Mar 5, 2019

The Brewing Storm: Climate Security Risks in a Fast-Warming North Africa

North Africa is by most measures already an exceedingly hostile environment. It has relatively little arable land, next to no rainfall beyond the narrow coastal strip, and extreme temperature highs,…