Essays
Long-form writing on the geography of the modern economy. Each essay is built to be re-read, not skimmed.
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Braided river, aerial Geography · 15 min · Apr 20, 2026Fire Country
Fort McMurray showed what happens when fire reaches the wildland-urban edge. The WUI keeps expanding. The fire climate is changing. The two trends are running toward each other.
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Data hall, cable plane Economy · 14 min · Apr 20, 2026The Insurance Geography
Insurance does not prevent disasters. It prices the geography of risk and decides who can afford to live where. In Alberta, that pricing is changing.
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Glacial valley at dusk Geography · 12 min · Apr 20, 2026Watching Water
Snowpack satellites, radar altimeters, and gravity sensors now make it possible to watch Alberta's water budget from orbit. Here is what they are telling us.
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Transmission corridor at night Economy · 15 min · Apr 14, 2026Capital Country
Canada has $1.8 trillion in growth waiting to be unlocked. Where it lives, what is blocking it, and why the province that anchors the largest sector is generating the uncertainty that kills long-horizon investment.
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Wind turbines, flat light Economy · 15 min · Apr 3, 2026The Warehouse Province
Alberta produces raw materials and exports them in bulk. Everything else arrives by truck. This is the infrastructure that makes that possible — and what it costs when it breaks.
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Fjord coastline Economy · 14 min · Mar 26, 2026After the Burning Strait
What changes when closure becomes a governed corridor
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Braided river, aerial Geography · 15 min · Mar 26, 2026Avalanche Country
The eastern slopes have always slid. What is changing is the season, the trigger, and the kind of instability now arriving from a warming mountain climate.
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Rural station platform Geography · 12 min · Mar 26, 2026The Classroom Arithmetic
Alberta's education system is building schools for yesterday's growth while a demographic pulse rolls toward secondary school.
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Glacial valley at dusk Geography · 12 min · Mar 19, 2026Storm Country
Calgary sits where Arctic, Pacific, and continental air collide — and the bill is climbing.
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Industrial town, winter Economy · 41 min · Mar 16, 2026Alberta Calling
How a province that spent a decade recruiting the world is learning to blame it for showing up.
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Hands over topographic map Geography · 12 min · Mar 16, 2026Hidden in Plain Sight
Calgary's 8,000 hectares of urban nature: what the livability rankings capture, what they miss, and what happens when a city keeps adding people.
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Transmission corridor at night Economy · 18 min · Mar 11, 2026The Ideology of Extraction
Commodity, class, and the collapse of distance — from the Banda Islands to the Strait of Hormuz.
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Wind turbines, flat light Economy · 10 min · Mar 8, 2026Rockets and Feathers
Why Alberta pump prices spike overnight but fall for weeks — and whether this week's crude crash will actually reach the forecourt.
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Transmission corridor at night Economy · 24 min · Mar 7, 2026Alberta's Pipeline Geography
A Connected Province and the Infrastructure That Makes It So
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Prairie section road Economy · 12 min · Mar 7, 2026The Checkout Problem
Alberta grows the food, drills the fuel, and still pays some of Canada's highest grocery prices. This is why.
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Port cranes, hazed Places · 18 min · Mar 7, 2026Two Front Doors and a Mountain
Alberta tourism through flight patterns, spend trails, seasonal rhythms, and the places that arrival pressure is changing fastest.
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Fjord coastline Economy · 15 min · Mar 6, 2026Landlocked by Default: The Economic Geography of Alberta's Connectivity Crisis
Why Alberta's geography is its biggest economic constraint — and what that means for the pipelines, ports, and trade deals being negotiated in its name.
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Fjord coastline Economy · 20 min · Mar 2, 2026The Burning Strait
A systems view of chokepoint activation, supply chain propagation, and the asymmetric geography of oil dependence.
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Data hall, cable plane Economy · 20 min · Feb 20, 2026Contested Ground
Global Energy Markets, War, Sanctions, and the Renewable Tide
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Wind turbines, flat light Economy · 15 min · Feb 18, 2026The Texas of the North
What the Comparison Actually Reveals — and What It Obscures
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Transmission corridor at night Economy · 15 min · Feb 16, 2026A Trade Reality Check
What the Province Produces, What It Exports, and What It Needs From Everyone Else
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Data hall, cable plane Geography · 10 min · Mar 9, 2025What Light Reveals
How a team of University of Alberta graduates put hyperspectral eyes in orbit — and made them free to use.
