Independent tests commissioned by CAPE‑BC detected toxic equivalency of 44 pg/g of dioxins and furans in roof dust within 500 m of Metro Vancouver’s Burnaby waste‑to‑energy facility—nearly twenty times Health Canada’s safe threshold. The finding reignites debate over the publicly owned incinerator, now operated by Veolia and serving as the heat source for Wesgroup’s River District Energy network. Financial records show the facility cost taxpayers $26.7 million in 2023 while returning barely $4.9 million, and BCUC has approved a 7.5 % rate rise for district‑energy customers to curb deficits. Advocates urge stronger monitoring or a phase‑out in favour of zero‑waste solutions; Metro Vancouver insists emissions remain within legal limits.

Even in the animal kingdom, behaviors emerge that seem to defy strict logical utility yet become deeply ingrained social norms or fads. Researchers observed chimpanzees at a Zambian sanctuary adopting a peculiar “fashion”—sticking blades of grass in their ears, and even rears—a seemingly “pointless” trend that was copied from one another and persisted as a “cultural tradition” even after the original trendsetter’s death. This intriguing phenomenon, which potentially serves to “strengthen social bonds and create a sense of belonging,” offers a striking lens through which to examine human market behaviors, where sentiment, perceived value, and collective shifts can dictate outcomes with surprising and often non-rational force. As Utrecht University researcher Edwin van Leeuwen noted, such animal behaviors “may offer insights into the evolutionary roots of human culture.”

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