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Weekly Quiz: Northern Mines, Synthetic Slopes, and Heroic Afterlives

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const title = "Northern Mines, Synthetic Slopes, and Heroic Afterlives"; const date = "February 28, 2026"; const data = [ { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/KANE_Diavik_001.jpg", title: "How to Close a Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/how-to-close-a-diamond-mine-in-the-northwest-territories/", question: "The North has a fraught history with mining. Take Giant Mine, for example: located near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, the now-defunct site created a massive environmental liability that taxpayers are still dealing with. How much is the federal government spending to clean up Giant Mine?", options: [ "$755 million", "$1.2 billion", "$2.9 billion", "$4.38 billion", ], answer: "$4.38 billion", correct: "The North is a part of Canada where mining companies tend to have a dirty track record. Giant Mine is the most famous example of a company that fled, leaving 237,000 tons of arsenic trioxide waste behind. The federal government is spending around 4.38 billion taxpayer dollars to clean up the mess, which will take until at least 2038 to finish. Indigenous communities have pushed the territorial government to ensure that wouldn’t happen again with the diamond mines.", incorrect: "The North is a part of Canada where mining companies tend to have a dirty track record. Giant Mine is the most famous example of a company that fled, leaving 237,000 tons of arsenic trioxide waste behind. The federal government is spending around 4.38 billion taxpayer dollars to clean up the mess, which will take until at least 2038 to finish. Indigenous communities have pushed the territorial government to ensure that wouldn’t happen again with the diamond mines.", }, { title: "My Sister Died Waiting for a Transplant. The System Is Set Up for Heartbreak", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/my-sister-died-waiting-for-a-transplant-the-system-is-set-up-for-heartbreak/", question: "The organ shortage in North America was intensified by the “transplant boom” of the mid-1980s. As transplant procedures became more successful, many more patients were added to waiting lists. Which medical breakthrough significantly improved transplant success rates and led to this surge in demand?", options: [ "The development of improved organ rejection biomarkers", "The invention of mechanical ventilation", "The discovery of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine", "The introduction of improved organ preservation solutions", ], answer: "The discovery of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine", correct: "The organ shortage was, in part, a product of the “transplant boom” of the mid-1980s. With transplant success rates improving thanks to the discovery of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine, the number of patients listed for a transplant began to rise during that decade, and those numbers have been rising ever since. To reduce the gap between the supply and demand, it became obvious that the co-operation of hospital and medical professionals in the process of organ procurement was more crucial than focusing on the willingness of the public to be donors. Toward this end, “required request” became federal law in the US in 1986 and eventually in Canadian jurisdictions as well.", incorrect: "The organ shortage was, in part, a product of the “transplant boom” of the mid-1980s. With transplant success rates improving thanks to the discovery of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine, the number of patients listed for a transplant began to rise during that decade, and those numbers have been rising ever since. To reduce the gap between the supply and demand, it became obvious that the co-operation of hospital and medical professionals in the process of organ procurement was more crucial than focusing on the willingness of the public to be donors. Toward this end, “required request” became federal law in the US in 1986 and eventually in Canadian jurisdictions as well.", }, { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Web_ToLeaveaWarriorBehind_Feb26_03.jpg ", title: "He Was a Legendary Newsroom Colleague. Turned Out He Had a Secret Past", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/he-was-a-legendary-newsroom-colleague-turned-out-he-had-a-secret-past/", question: "Charles Saunders spent decades quietly building a career as a fantasy writer alongside his career as a journalist—the former largely kept secret from his peers in the newsroom. But Saunders once gave author and fellow Halifax Daily News alum John Tattrie a signed copy of his most celebrated book, named for its Black warrior protagonist. What was the title of the novel?", options: [ "Pomphis", "Imaro", "Chinua", "Taaq", ], answer: "Imaro", correct: "Tattrie discovered through Saunders’s website that he had been writing fantasy since the 1970s. This surprised him, until he remembered a moment from their stint at the Daily News. “I was working on my first novel, and one day, Charles gave me a signed copy of Imaro. I could still picture the cover: a Black warrior wielding a blood-dipped sword, roaring triumphant over a mountain of men and lions. When I read it, I loved it, even though I didn’t entirely know what to make of it, and I would later learn my white brain had missed half the story.”", incorrect: "Tattrie discovered through Saunders’s website that he had been writing fantasy since the 1970s. This surprised him, until he remembered a moment from their stint at the Daily News. “I was working on my first novel, and one day, Charles gave me a signed copy of Imaro. I could still picture the cover: a Black warrior wielding a blood-dipped sword, roaring triumphant over a mountain of men and lions. When I read it, I loved it, even though I didn’t entirely know what to make of it, and I would later learn my white brain had missed half the story.”", }, { title: "All That Glitters Is Not Snow: How Ski Resorts Are Replicating Reality", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/all-that-glitters-is-not-snow-how-ski-resorts-are-replicating-reality/", question: "Ski resorts require a considerable amount of water to produce the artificial snow that allows them to maintain perfect hill conditions. Mont Tremblant Ski Resort uses approximately 1.3 million cubic metres of water annually. That volume is roughly equivalent to how many Olympic-size swimming pools?", options: [ "52", "150", "520", "1,300", ], answer: "520", correct: "The Laurentians’ Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, the largest resort in Quebec with its 102 slopes, uses 1.3 million cubic metres of water annually to produce artificial snow—that’s about 520 Olympic-size swimming pools. Though specific numbers are hard to come by, a large resort can consume about the same energy seasonally as thousands of homes do in a year. And as winters are getting shorter and the planet is warming, the industry’s having to churn out more and more fake snow.", incorrect: "The Laurentians’ Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, the largest resort in Quebec with its 102 slopes, uses 1.3 million cubic metres of water annually to produce artificial snow—that’s about 520 Olympic-size swimming pools. Though specific numbers are hard to come by, a large resort can consume about the same energy seasonally as thousands of homes do in a year. And as winters are getting shorter and the planet is warming, the industry’s having to churn out more and more fake snow.", }, ];

How closely have you been reading our online stories this week? Take The Walrus Weekly Quiz to find out—released every Saturday.

Northern Mines, Synthetic Slopes, and Heroic Afterlives

Weekly Quiz: Online Scapegoating, Elver Economics, and the Old World Order

February 21, 2026February 23, 2026

Weekly Quiz: Contested Care, Clean Water, and Canada’s Changing Crease

February 14, 2026February 16, 2026

Weekly Quiz: Harm Reduction, Space Surveillance, and Powerful Portraiture

February 7, 2026February 9, 2026

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