Join the Community of Practice on Environment, Climate, Conflict, and Peace (ECCP) and the CCDP and  Peter Schwartzstein, environmental journalist, researcher, and fellow at The Wilson Center and The Center for Climate & Security. He will present The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence. Mara Tignino from Geneva Water Hub, and Silja Halle from UNEP, will each offer a first response to kick off the group's discussion. The conversation will be moderated by Annika Erickson-Pearson. 

This event is in-person at The Fab on the 4th floor of Petal 2 at Maison de la paix.

Based on more than a decade of reporting from dozens of countries and an array of conflict zones, 'The Heat and the Fury' is an attempt to lay out the extent and, most importantly, the nature of climate's contribution to violence on the ground. It is written in part to introduce the subject to the casual reader––and, as such, tells as much of the story as possible through the experiences of the farmers, fighters, and regular families in the eye of this 'storm.' But, with its emphasis on how climate and environmental stresses are interacting with other drivers of instability, such as corruption, inequality, and misinformation, it is also very much geared towards climate security practitioners. In this example-heavy talk, Peter Schwartzstein will touch on his book's key themes and what he deems to be some of the less covered, less known, and less understood areas within the field. 

About the Book

As a journalist on the climate security beat, Peter Schwartzstein has been chased by kidnappers, badly beaten, detained by police, and told, in no uncertain terms, that he was no longer welcome in certain countries. Yet these personal brushes with violence are simply a hint of the conflict simmering in our warming world.

Schwartzstein has visited ravaged Iraqi towns where ISIS used drought as a recruiting tool and weapon of terror. In Bangladesh, he has interviewed farmers-turned-pirates who can no longer make a living off the land and instead make it off bloody ransoms. Security forces have blocked him from a dam being constructed along the Nile that has brought Egypt and Ethiopia to the brink of war. And he has heard the fear in the voices of women from around the world who say their husbands’ tempers flare when the temperature ticks up.

In The Heat and the Fury, he not only puts readers on the frontlines of climate violence but gives us the context to make sense of seemingly senseless acts. As Schwartzstein deftly shows, climate change is often the spark that ignites long smoldering fires, the extra shove that pushes individuals, communities, and even nations over the line between frustration and lethal fury. What, he asks, can ratchet down the aggression? Can cooperation on climate actually become a salve to heal old wounds?

There are no easy answers on a planet that is fast becoming a powder keg. But Schwartzstein’s incisive analysis of geopolitics, unparalleled on-the-ground reporting, and keen sense of human nature offer the clearest picture to date of the violence that threatens us all.

About the Author

Peter Schwartzstein is an environmental journalist who reports on water, food security, and particularly the conflict-climate nexus across some thirty countries in the Middle East, Africa, and occasionally further afield. He mostly writes for National Geographic , but his work has also appeared in the New York Times , BBC, Foreign Affairs , and many other outlets. He is a Global Fellow with the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program, a TED fellow, and a fellow at the Center for Climate and Security.

Discussants

Dr. Mara Tignino is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Lead Legal Specialist of the Platform for International Water Law at the Geneva Water Hub. She is the lead author of the Geneva List of Principles on the Protection of Water Infrastructure which was translated in French, Arabic and Russian (2019) and A Review of the Legal Tools Applicable to Dams Planning, Development and Monitoring (2021). She is also co-lead author of  A Study of National Legal Frameworks related to the Protection of Water During Armed Conflicts (2023). She is the Chief Legal Specialist of the program “Protection of the Environment during Armed Conflict” (supported by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia) and the project “Transboundary Water Study and Support for the Government of Iraq” (supported by the United Nations Development Programme). She is a member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law in Sanremo.

Silja Halle is a Programme Officer with UN Environment’s Post-Conflict and Disaster Management Branch. She is currently responsible for managing two projects, as well as advising the Branch on key policy and programmatic matters.As Programme Manager of the Joint UN Environment, UNDP, UN Women and PBSO Programme on Promoting Gender-Responsive Approaches to Natural Resource Management for Peacebuilding, Silja is responsible – on behalf of all four partners – for the implementation of a new ground-breaking programme focused on using natural resource management as a tool for promoting the political participation, economic empowerment and protection of women in conflict-affected contexts.

Who is ECCP? 

About the Seminars

Each semester, CCDP hosts a series of internal seminars to give our faculty, staff and affiliates the opportunity to present their work and receive feedback. The goal of the seminars is to have an informal and frank conversation about the research presented, and exchange ideas across disciplines and expertise, going beyond academic silos. Speakers at the seminars are both early career and senior scholars.

Apolline Foedit is organising the seminars for the academic year 2024-2025. For further information, get in touch at apolline.foedit@graduateinstitute.ch.