![\"neil](\"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/drilling\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/neil-young.jpg\")
<\/a>\nSinger says tar sands development left Fort McMurray a ‘wasteland’ that is ‘truly a disaster’
\n– Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer<\/p>\n
Flickr \/ Creative Commons License \/ NRK P3Fresh off a trip to Canada’s tar sands oil fields in Alberta, famed singer Neil Young spoke out at a conference in Washington, DC on Monday against the controversial oil extraction and its export through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, calling Fort McMurray, the town nearest Alberta’s vast tar sands, a “wasteland.”<\/p>\n
“This is truly a disaster,” said Young, painting a dire picture in which the people, land and animals of the region are greatly suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fuel\u2019s all over \u2013 the fumes everywhere \u2013 you can smell it when you get to town,” Young recalled. “The closest place to Fort McMurray that is doing the tar sands work is 25 or 30 miles out of town and you can taste it when you get to Fort McMurray. People are sick. People are dying of cancer because of this. All the First Nations people up there are threatened by this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah it\u2019s going to put a lot of people to work,” Young said of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which is slated to transport the excavated tar sands to export terminals in Texas and Louisiana. “I\u2019ve heard that, and I\u2019ve seen a lot of people that would dig a hole that\u2019s so deep that they couldn\u2019t get out of it, and that\u2019s a job too, and I think that\u2019s the jobs that we are talking about there with the Keystone pipeline,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is, Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima,\u201d said Young. \u201cFort McMurray is a wasteland. … All of the First Nations people up there are threatened by this. Their food supply is wasted. Their treaties are no good. They have a right to live on the land that they always did but there’s no land left that they can live on. All the animals are dying. This is truly a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeil Young is speaking for all of us fighting to stop the Keystone XL,\u201d Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska, a coalition of landowners and others opposed to the $5.3-billion Keystone XL pipeline, told the Globe and Mail. \u201cWhen you see the pollution already caused by the reckless expansion of tar sands, you only have one choice and that is to act.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Published on Tuesday, September 10, 2013 by Common Dreams Singer says tar sands development left Fort McMurray a ‘wasteland’ that is ‘truly a disaster’ – Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer Flickr \/ Creative Commons License \/ NRK P3Fresh off a trip to Canada’s tar sands oil fields in Alberta, famed singer Neil Young spoke out at … Continue reading Common Dreams: Neil Young: Tar Sands Fields ‘Look Like Hiroshima’<\/span>