The Heat and the Fury

Host Richard Delevan interviews author Peter Schwartzstein, whose experiences give him a unique authority to explore how difficult it is to cover “climate security” from the front lines.

Climate and Violence

Many associate climate-related violence with regions like Syria. Schwartzstein explains that while climate change didn’t directly cause the Syrian civil war, it played a critical role in weakening the societal fabric. Severe droughts exacerbated poverty and rural migration, fostering instability and making communities more susceptible to revolutionary movements.

The West and Climate-Related Violence

The developed world won’t remain untouched by climate-induced violence for long. The infrastructure, even in advanced economies, is struggling under the strain of extreme weather events.

Catalysts:

• The Heat and the Fury: Reporting from the Front Lines of Climate Violence by Peter Schwartzstein.
• The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
• A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
• A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman
• The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan

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