Amid escalating global crises, the Cascade team provides practical, factual and solution-centred commentary. Here are some recent pieces the team and I have published in national and international media: 

• On going from bad to worse: In a piece for The New Republic, Cascade Polycrisis Fellow Christoper Collins and I argue that sky-high oil prices, a fertilizer shortage, and a coming super El Niño are not discrete events. These represent a true polycrisis — tightly entangled shocks that could strain global food systems and spark wider instability unless coordinated action is taken now. 

• On why the polycrisis hits young people hardest: The Canadian Press recently turned to Cascade Polycrisis Fellow Megan Shipman to help explain a sharp rise in reported unhappiness among Canadians under 30. "We don't typically think about these things together," Shipman explained, "but they're obviously having impacts on one another."  

• On the Iran oil shock — and Canada's unique leverage: Writing in The Globe and Mail, Cascade's Peter Massie and Emily Smejkal argue that Canada can respond to global oil shocks not just defensively but strategically, by accelerating next-generation geothermal development. Peter and Emily explain that Canada has the resources and the expertise to lead but lacks a coordinated strategy. 

• On the unthinkable — can the U.S. coerce Canada? In a Globe and Mail op-ed, Adam Gordon and I argue that Canada needs to prepare for a neighbour that can no longer be assumed benign. "The world is wildly non-linear now, so little can be predicted with confidence," we write. "But whatever surprises are in store, one fact is certain: our neighbour's autocratic and avaricious leader is demonstrably eager to use his country's massive military power to advance his interests. We must get ready."  

• On Canada's energy opportunity: Writing in The Tyee, Cascade's Rebecca Pearce writes that Canada has a competitive edge in geothermal energy — one that can truly make us an energy superpower. "By deploying our own expertise towards geothermal innovation across our broad spectrum of geological settings, we can unlock vast resources of clean, firm, renewable heat and power," she writes.

• On Europe's rearmament — and a better way to pay for it: Writing in Barron's, Christopher Collins and Mike O'Sullivan (author of The Levelling) make the case that Europe needs to take full responsibility for its own defence — and that the proposed Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) is the mechanism for doing so. Canada, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, has emerged as a champion of the bank. As Collins and O'Sullivan put it: "Letting Canada solve [Europe's problems] isn't a viable strategy." 

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New research on the transformative potential of geothermal

In a new Cascade Institute report, Geothermal Prospects in Baker Lake, Nunavut, Cascade Affiliate Researcher Ysaline Bacon demonstrates Arctic geothermal potential, drawing on fresh borehole data and subsurface modelling that reveal higher-than-expected underground temperatures in Qamani'tuaq, and challenging the conventional wisdom that geothermal isn't feasible in the North.

Coming to Canada: World Geothermal Congress

From June 8 to 11, Canada hosts the triennial World Geothermal Congress in Calgary — the most significant gathering of geothermal scientists, policymakers, industry leaders, and innovators in the world. The Cascade team will be deeply involved, with Peter Massie, Emily Smejkal, Rebecca Pearce, and others presenting and chairing panel discussions on Canada's potential.

Learn more and register at wgc2026.com