Neil Young’s Immoral Attack on Oil Sands

From Capitalism Magazine -

"Let’s start with the bad news. Neil Young’s is the most immoral of the celebrity attacks so far. When given a tour of the oil sands operations in Fort McMurray, he chose to focus on the physical appearance of the open pit mine—which will be reclaimed when mining ends—and ignore all the other relevant facts. Other celebrity critics (movie director James Cameron comes to mind) have changed their stance when they learned the facts about the oil sands, but not Neil Young. He failed to acknowledge the tremendous value of the oil sands to human flourishing. More than half (1.8 million barrels/day) of Canada’s crude oil production comes from the oil sands, providing energy and raw materials for products that make human life better: heat for our homes, fuel for our cars, power for industrial production, and plastics and synthetic fibers for a myriad of products we use daily. The oil sands contribute about $84 billion a year to the Canadian economy, and $1.8 billion per year in revenue to the aboriginal businesses—owned by the people that Neil Young claims to be helping."

Here's the whole essay.

Share