Peter Schwartzstein, an environmental journalist and author of "The Heat and the Fury," dives into the alarming correlation between climate change and violence. He discusses how vulnerable communities become hotspots for violence due to climate-induced stresses and governance failures. Schwartzstein also explores the psychological impact of environmental degradation, introducing the term 'solastalgia.' He warns that feelings of abandonment might provoke unrest even in stable democracies, as mental health and identity are increasingly tied to our changing planet.
In *The Heat and the Fury*, Peter Schwartzstein takes readers on a riveting journey through regions affected by climate violence. He investigates how climate change ignites long-smoldering tensions, pushing individuals, communities, and nations towards lethal fury. The book delves into various case studies, including drought-fueled terrorism in Iraq, farmer-pirate conflicts in Bangladesh, and water disputes along the Nile. Schwartzstein's analysis of geopolitics, on-the-ground reporting, and understanding of human nature provide a comprehensive picture of the violence linked to climate change and its potential to heal old wounds through cooperation.
A hotter world is a more violent world.
Peter Schwartzstein is an environmental journalist and researcher, and author of The Heat and the Fury which investigates the relationship between violence and climate change. He joins me to explain how a changing climate is creating pockets of violence in poor and rural communities around the world. Local and national governance failures are driving violence, with the changes to the earth's body being felt in our own.
Taking us all around the world, Peter explains the particular set of circumstances which generate violence, given communities often do their utmost to avoid clashing. Climate change alone does not brew violence, but combined with a loss of sense of self and an awareness of wealth disparity, people turn to extremes to protect themselves from further abandonment. We then turn this model on this West, hypothesising how violence could spring up in liberal democracies where increasingly people are feeling let down by their elected officials. Finally, we explore the trauma of watching the earth break down around us, and how people's minds are being lost with the stability we once knew and relied upon, inspiring behaviour that was also once previously unimaginable.
Planet: Critical is 100% independent and community-powered. If you value it, and have the means, become a paid subscriber today.
Planet: Critical 