Peter Schwartzstein
Peter Schwartzstein is an environmental journalist, researcher and advisor who focuses on environmental peacebuilding and the conflict-climate nexus. He’s spent more than a decade reporting across more than thirty countries in the Middle East, Africa, and farther afield, mostly for National Geographic. He’s a fellow at the Stimson Center, journalist-in-residence at The Center for Climate and Security, and a TED fellow. Based between Athens, Greece and Amman, Jordan, he consults for a range of governments and iNGOs, inlcuding UNEP, UNDP, Amnesty International, UNICEF and the International Water Management Institute. He holds BA and MA degrees from Trinity College.
He is the author of The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence, the first from-the-ground exploration of climate’s contribution to violence, which was published in late 2024. He also recently published a report with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation titled A Distant Problem No Longer: How climate change is fuelling crime and fraying trust across Europe, examining the contribution of climate to crime and instability in Europe, as well as writing an op-ed for the New York Times, When Climate Change Blurs Borders.
Click listen below to hear Peter Schwartzstein on the International Risk Podcast talk about the climate violence nexus, exploring how climate change acts as a threat multiplier and sharing stories emerging from the frontlines of a warming, increasingly resource-stressed world.
