Canadian icon, Neil Young, has been very clear on his beliefs of the oil sands in Alberta. He once said that Fort McMurray was reminiscent to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped, and he stands by that comparison. In an interview with the CBC's Jian Ghomeshi, the singer said that "I always felt that Canada was a different place and where the values were different and that we cherish the natural surroundings that we're in. But my visit to Alberta changed a lot of that for me," he explained.
Young calls the oil sands the "the ugliest environmental disaster," but is also worried about the social impact that it is having. "All the First Nations people up there are threatened by this" he said in September.
The topic of the oil sands is one that is being heavily debated, and not surprisingly, Young's comments have received some backlash, but the singer seems to be very passionate about the topic. After the interview, Ghomeshi tweeted: "Neil Young can be a reluctant interviewee. Not today. He gave. And spoke defiantly about oil sands."
You can listen to the full radio interview here.