The Heat and the Fury, Peter Schwartzstein
The Heat and the Fury, Peter Schwartzstein
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Heat and the Fury
On the Frontlines of Climate Violence

Author: Peter Schwartzstein

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Unabridged: 8 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/11/2025


Synopsis

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. 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 listeners 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?

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by mer! on August 23, 2024

This was an incredibly written, well-rounded, and extremely informative piece on the very subjects I have been (semi-) panicking about for the past few years. I think I can say for sure that I am free from the grasps of eco-nihilism thanks to what Schwartzstein illustrates as the realistic picture o......more

Goodreads review by Campbell on November 03, 2024

Based on a decade of field reporting, Schwartzstein has scoured his reporter notebooks to weave an alarming narrative: climate change induced violence and disorder is not just our planet’s future but increasingly our present too. A depressing subject to be sure, but Schwartzstein has managed to writ......more

Goodreads review by John on April 23, 2025

Super important book for everyone to read! Rarely do we hear what is happening about other countries climate woes here in America, this one really brings it home. My well went dry for 2 months last fall '24, so I had a taste of what it can be like to not have water from my faucet. But the situations......more

Goodreads review by Devin on November 03, 2024

Schwartzstein has seamlessly woven over a decade of journalism into a riveting, essential read on climate security. It’s hard not to feel a sense of impending doom as he encounters the threats and reality of water scarcity and drought, landslides and floods, and soured aquifers destroyed by industry......more

Goodreads review by Phillip on November 10, 2024

A really insightful read about the real world effect of climate change on the hardest hit places on the globe. The author writes with intimacy and deep care for the subject, mixing anecdotes, observations and data together with ease, while able to also zoom out on the big picture of major climate fa......more