Page 151 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

11 BEARING WITNESS AND THE LOGIC OF CELEBRITY … 141

him into a lightning rod for critics. On September 9, 2013, while attending
a National Farmers Union event in Washington, D.C., he commented that,
“The fact is, Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima. Fort McMurray is a
wasteland” (Koring and Cryderman 2013). His remarks made news across
Canada and spurred a wave of defensive and angry responses from oil sands
supporters and local politicians. The mainstream media editorials that
followed framed Young as a hypocrite who indulges in an oil-soaked
celebrity lifestyle (e.g. Lamphier 2013). A local radio station in Fort
McMurray even declared a “No Neil” day banning Young’s music for
24 hours in protest (Canada Press 2011).
In January 2014, Young used his celebrity status to organize a four city
concert tour—Honour the Treaties—to raise awareness and funds for
ACFN in their struggle against tar sands development. The concerts
generated revenues of $500,000 but also incurred the ire of critics (Ball
Windspeaker 2014). Oil sands advocate Ezra Levant and his organization
Ethical Oil started an online website and campaign “Neil Young Lies”
which sought to “[expose] Neil Young’s ‘honour the treaties’ hypocrisy,
and how the aging rockstar really feels about First Nations” (Neil Young
Lies 2016). The website sought to ‘fact check’ Young’s oil sands claims,
hypothesize who funded Young’s concert tour and, expose “the truth
about Neil Young” as seen in the hypocrisy of Young’s pitching his
humanist and ecological sensibilities against his celebrity lifestyle (ibid.).
Focussing on a celebrity’s use of oil-based products is a common strategy of
ad hominem attack when celebrities speak about environmental issues.
Reflecting on the controversy stirred up by his comments and tour Young
remarked, “My job is to bring to light the situation through my celebrity”
(CBC News 2014). In this quote Young recognizes his celebrity as a form
of capital which he can mobilize and direct to generate media attention and
economic capital.

SLIPPAGE:GLOBAL CLAIMS AND LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
The only other major celebrity who has been as visible as Young in cam-
paigning against the oil sands is Hollywood actor and climate change
campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio. Whereas both Cameron and Young were
born in Canada and could plausibly claim to have a stake in the future of
the country and environment they grew up in, DiCaprio’s status as an
American citizen opened a potential space for arguments that he was dis-
connected from and ignorant of local conditions. As we will see, an