Folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie is on Neil Young’s side when it comes to the tar sands in Alberta, Canada.
In an interview in Indian Country Sainte-Marie tells writer David Ball:
“Almost a year ago I went to Fort McMurray (Alberta) and I was just devastated with what’s going on there. Just devastated. I just told everybody I could: ‘You’ve got to take this seriously.’ Even since I was there, other people have really stepped forward in their own ways, Neil Young in particular. He’s caught a lot of criticism because he didn’t involve me, Susan Aglukark or other Native people. Neil came to the induction ceremony in Nashville, at the Musicians Hall of Fame, and I told him I’d seen some of the criticism and not to listen to it at all! Because it’s so important, it has to be everybody doing whatever they can, whenever they can, and being effective at whatever level they can be. You reach people your way, I do it my way and Neil does it his way. But people have to see it.”
“Good for Neil for stepping up,” she said.
Sainte-Marie lives in Hawaii, maybe she is Neil and Poncho’s neighbor.
As our Zuman friend Pat indicated, Canada forgot to muzzle their scientists.
Elizabeth Willoughby at Look to the Stars World of Celebrity Giving wrote that a Canadian federal government report by scientists working with Environment Canada estimated last week that Alberta oil sands are polluting ground water and toxic chemicals are seeping into the Athabasca River at rates higher than previously suspected.
Oil companies in Alberta’s oil sands create lakes, called tailings ponds, to contain the processed water and chemicals used to separate the bitumen from the sand. Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has been complaining for years that their fish have become deformed and inedible, that wildlife has disappeared and that cancer in the community has risen dramatically since the oil sands began production.
The scientists took 20 groundwater samples from areas at least one kilometre upstream and downstream from development. They took another seven samples from within 200 metres of two of the tailings ponds. Samples were also taken from two different tailings ponds.
The analysis was focused on so-called acid-extractable organics, which include a family of chemicals called naphthenic acids. “Their enhanced water solubility makes them prime candidates for possible migration beyond containment structures via groundwater,” the report says.
Those toxins were found in groundwater both near and far from development. But their chemical composition was slightly different nearer the mines – closer to that found in the water from the ponds.
He says he’s joining Neil Young’s war on ignorance.
Gray Bear, a member of the First Nations, is featured in an article by the Oceanside Star.
He is dragging a cart behind him, bedecked with a huge First Nations flag, a white Teddy bear, a music case with the CBC logo and other symbols representing Canadian icons he sees as being under attack by the Harper government.
A beekeeper and musician by trade, he holds music legend Neil Young as an icon, praising him for taking a stand against the further development of tar sands in Alberta.”I adore him for having the courage to do what he did,” he said. “People don’t realize what danger he puts himself in. He puts himself on the spot and he knows he’s going to be persecuted. He’s waging a war on ignorance.”
A message from Neil, along with his address to the press before the Calgary show, specifically to the editor of the Calgary Herald. Jan. 19, 2014
Thanks to my friends in the First Nations.
Thanks to my crew, Thanks to all of the Canadians who supported our efforts to enable justice and truth for the First Nations living in Canada.
Our journey across the great expanse of Canada reveal…ed the beauty of the people and the land once again and brought back the old feelings of home.
To the leaders of Canada I say keep our word. Live up to the truth. Honour the treaties. To the foreign and domestic oil companies in our north, I say clean up your mess.
Stop complaining.
Talk to our First Nations and come to agreements to allow what you plan to do on their land, as it is represented in the treaties our forefathers reached with our First Nations.
A Greenpeace movie that Neil Young will present during the week’s concerts at Honor-The-Treaties. Neil said “Petropolis” was “probably the most devastating thing you will ever see.”
A trailer and more info can be found here:
http://www.petropolis-film.com/#
Shot primarily from a helicopter, filmmaker Peter Mettler’s “Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands” offers an unparalleled view of the world’s largest industrial, capital and energy project.
Canada’s tar sands are an oil reserve the size of England. Extracting the crude oil called bitumen from underneath unspoiled wilderness requires a massive industrialized effort with far-reaching impacts on the land, air, water, and climate.
It’s an extraordinary spectacle, whose scope can only be understood from far above. In a hypnotic flight of image and sound, one machine’s perspective upon the choreography of others, suggests a dehumanized world where petroleum’s power is supreme.
“Well its not like Neverland or anything. We just have horses, cows. We don\'t have a giraffe, we don\'t have a preschool group. We had some emus for a while. They were pretty cool. ” by -- Neil Young
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
Folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie is on Neil Young’s side when it comes to the tar sands in Alberta, Canada.
Thanks to my friends in the First Nations.
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
