Unbiased Expert Neil Young Says No To Oilsands/Keystone

[Anonymous]

High school dropout and former junkie Neil Young says the city where I own a condo is like Hiroshima after the nuclear blast?? He  left his home in one of the smoggiest big cities in the USA to FLY to Washington, probably picked up in a Tahoe SUV to tell us my second home sucks especially when compared to the soothing fresh air of L.A.  

When you're dealing with a crusty old hippy, whose lyrics include anti-oil jabs like "I'm a vampire, baby, sucking blood from the earth," a bias against Alberta's bitumen should come as no surprise.



But to completely disregard reality, because it clashes with personal propaganda?



In the eyes of Alberta filmmaker Tim Moen, that's exactly what musician Neil Young has done in comparing Alberta's oilsands capital to Hiroshima, and claiming the Fort McMurray area is nothing but a wasteland full of death, cancer and noxious fumes.



Young's outburst, made at a National Farmers Union event in Washington, comes just weeks after the Fort McMurray cameraman tried his best to show the shrill-voiced singer both sides of Alberta's oilsands industry.



"I wasn't as surprised as I was let down," said Moen.



Moen was hired by Young's production company to film a visit by the Canadian-born rocker and enviro-actress Daryl Hannah to Fort McMurray, as part of a tour in two vintage cars converted to run on cellulosic ethanol.



Moen, an amateur guitarist who has covered Young songs on stage, was thrilled to work with a musical hero — but he also realized this was a chance to try and show a seemingly intelligent, open-minded man that the oilsands is a two-sided story.



Obviously, a couple of environmental activists cruising around in eco-converted cars weren't headed north to espouse the virtues of Alberta's controversial bitumen, and Moen was under no illusion that this was a trip targeting dirty oil.



And so he showed Neil around — but as well as the usual dramatic shots of "Mordor," where extraction is at its visual worst, he showed the two millionaires places of pristine nature, as well as reclaimation work and green technology being used to reach the bitumen.



Moen, who counts himself as eco-minded, even went so far as to line up some local environmental experts to give Young and Hannah a balanced perspective, from people who share their concerns about Mother Nature.



But the visitors didn't accept any of it, rejecting all footage that wasn't grim and nasty — and anything Young heard about advances in green technology was apparently forgotten the minute he arrived in Washington.

"The fact is, Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima," Young reportedly told the National Farmers Union.



"Fort McMurray is a wasteland. The Indians up there and the Native peoples are dying. The fuel's all over, there's fumes everywhere. You can smell it when you get to town ... People are sick. People are dying of cancer because of this."



Moen says Young's words were a serious disappointment.



"I thought we'd made some headway in showing both sides of our community, and it's frustrating having this misinformation — I mean, he's not totally wrong, and there are parts that do look like they were bombed, but that's the industry, not Fort McMurray," said Moen.



"It's hard, because Fort McMurray is our home, and I feel like we're a force for good in the world, not genocide and holocaust as he kind of paints us."



In a scathing blog about the experience, fortmacphilosopher.blogspot.ca, Moen points out Young's hypocrisy in not only choosing to tell one side of the story, but actively ignoring the other.



"What we didn't shoot was as informative about the narrative as what we did shoot. We did not film any reclaimed land. We didn't film any new extraction operations using greener technology. We didn't film any industry experts. We didn't film Neil's diesel burning bus that his crew rode in. We didn't film the environmentally conscious community active in Fort McMurray. That stuff wasn't on the agenda."

Despite his disappointment — a regret echoed by Canadian politicians, including Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver — Moen says he still likes Young, both for his music and down to earth personality.



But for Young to completely ignore all that he learned in Fort Mac leaves the filmmaker shaking his head.



"He was open-minded and curious and asked a lot of questions, and he seemed genuinely impressed and surprised to find we had all these green initiatives in our community," said Moen.



"It must have taken a bit of work for him to just dismiss that."

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/09/10/fort-mcmurray-filmmaker-disappointed-canadian-music-legend-neil-young-compared-oilsands-capital-to-hiroshima">http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/09/10/fo ... -hiroshima">http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/09/10/fort-mcmurray-filmmaker-disappointed-canadian-music-legend-neil-young-compared-oilsands-capital-to-hiroshima

[Romero]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Z_RTP5Pdhaw/TT-k7NUAITI/AAAAAAAAFYY/-Tc_7XXhwwQ/s1600/fort+mac+1.jpg">



Hiroshima still had some trees standing.

[Anonymous]

Romero, How did I know you would pick out a picture of an old open pit mine that and try and claim that represents a city and region you have never been to?

This the real Fort Mac that tens of thousands of us see everyday.

http://www.albertafirstmoving.ca/_mndata/firstmoving/uploaded_files/fort-mcmurray.jpg">

The one Neil Young does not want anyone to know about.

[Anonymous]

Neil Young can keep on talking in the free world, but Fort McMurray won't be listening.



A local rock radio station stopped playing the Canuck singer's music for a day after he compared the northern Alberta oil-sands city to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb.



On-air personality Chris Byrne at Rock 97.9 then asked his listeners if the ban should be extended indefinitely.



Neil supporters were in the majority, but when station staff looked at their e-mail addresses, most came from out of town.So with local opinion firmly against him, Young has been pulled from the station's playlist. No more Heart of Gold in the heart of the oilsands.



"We're going to continue with our ban," said Byrne, who said he used to play two or three Young tunes a day.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/in-fort-mcmurray-rock-radio-tunes-out-neil-young-over-hiroshima-remarks/article14263201/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/mus ... e14263201/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/in-fort-mcmurray-rock-radio-tunes-out-neil-young-over-hiroshima-remarks/article14263201/

Good for the people of Fort Mac standing up for their community against slander from outside hypocrits.

[Renee]

Neil Young died when the 70s ended. He was resurrected briefly in the 90s when grunge and flannel was king and then promptly died again when it went out of fashion. The only people who even care that he is breathing are far left enviro-Nazis and the sky is falling tree hugger types. Other than those lunatic groups everyone else thinks of him as a relic and a lousy Bob Dylan wannabe.  



I wouldn't worry too much about what that member of the walkig dead has to say.