Sting, Styler shine spotlight on environment at Rainforest Fund Benefit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer-songwriter Sting and his wife Trudie Styler hosted the biennial Rainforest Fund Benefit concert in New York on Wednesday, where Bruce Springsteen and Idina Menzel performed for environmental causes. The event celebrated a recent victory for Native Americans and environmentalists in which the federal government ruled against a pipeline project near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. Native American groups, activists, celebrities and U.S. armed forces had protested against the $3.8 billion oil project, saying said construction would damage sacred lands and any leaks could pollute the water supply. "We haven't won many arguments, those of us who have been in the environmental movement and human rights movement for many years," Tyler said. "I think Standing Rock really was the first gain ...and we have to make sure that we can now build on it." (Reporting By Reuters Television)