Our guest, Peter Schwartzstein, is a journalist on the climate security beat.  He’s immersed himself in some of the hot spots of the world, like Syria, for years during its civil war to unpack the story of how global warming is adding to, if not a key precipitant of, conflicts in many parts of the world.  This is particularly true in the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America where intensifying gang warfare in urban neighborhoods to ‘old school’ piracy are raging.  The climate plays a role in adding to a variety of other destabilizers when we consider how dependent many regions are in living off of the land.  This only makes sense.  Historically we have seen, for example, the role that water, or lack thereof, has played in disputes between nations.  In his book, “The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence”, Schwartzstein describes in vivid detail how global warming can unleash dislocation, exhaustion and a sense of powerlessness.  And while this phenomenon is most aggravated presently in poorer countries in warmer climates, he can see how it has the potential to push over to wealthier nations going forward.