Environmental activist julia butterfly hill (she doesn’t capitalize her name) will speak at the Save the Bay event in Santa Cruz on Sunday. It’s in response to the Trump Administration’s plans to expand offshore drilling in California.
Just before Earth Day this week, KAZU’s Erin Malsbury spoke with hill, who became famous in the ’90s for living in an old growth redwood tree for over two years to protect it from logging.
This is an extended version of an interview that aired on KAZU. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Erin Malsbury: You've been involved in environmental activism for decades now, and I'm curious whether the current moment feels different to you in terms of environmental threats.
julia butterfly hill: We are living in a time that I feel is unprecedented with the threats not only to the planet, but to all the life that we share this planet with.
It's very, very challenging times to be alive and certainly much different than what I'm most known for, which was living in an ancient redwood tree to protect it. Technology has changed so much, but also our current administration and the direction our government has gone in, to allow this kind of behavior to happen, is daunting.
I always tell people that's the perfect time to call us all into being our best selves.
EM: Have activism strategies changed over time as technologies changed? How have people had to adapt?
jbh: Some strategies have changed, some have stayed the same. I always remind people, though, that the greatest changes, they've always happened when people have been willing to put their bodies where their beliefs are. And we're even seeing that with the kind of mobilizing that's happening around ICE horrifically going into communities and having complete immunity and impunity to do whatever the heck they want. Folks on the ground are using technology to mobilize, so they can get to each other quickly. But then they're putting their actual bodies in between ICE and our human family that ICE is trying to wipe out.
So, there is kind of an evolution happening, for sure. I do believe that the biggest changes also happen when people are really willing to take risks. A lot of people want to show up for a protest for a day, and that's important, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to take away from that. But that's not what's gonna change this tide.
It takes us being willing to really take a stand and people–they'll think of my action as one action, and I'm like, 'yes, but it was 738 days without one single break.' I never touched the ground. I never went out to eat. I never went to the movies. And I'm not saying people shouldn't have fun with life, but I'm just reminding people that great change does involve people willing to make sacrifices. And for those who aren't able to make sacrifices, to be solid parts of the support team. We need that now more than ever.
EM: I think it's interesting that you brought up the idea of a team, because I think a lot of people get overwhelmed, feeling like they're just one person. Do you have any advice for people who do feel overwhelmed by the scale of the issues?
jbh: Because no choice happens in a vacuum, it's actually scientifically impossible to make no difference and have no impact.
So I've always told people it's not 'can one person make a difference?' It's that each and every one of us does make a difference. And so then we change the question from 'can I make a difference' to 'what kind of a difference do I want to make with the life that I've been given?'
I also remind people that it's important to bring what we love to what we do instead of bringing what we're angry about to what we do. And finding creativity, creativity in all of its forms—in thinking, and speaking, and action. All of these are important tools in the toolbox of today, no matter whether we do it through technology or on the ground.
EM: You're speaking at an event in Santa Cruz called Save the Bay, which is a response to the Trump administration's push to open offshore drilling in California. What made you want to get involved?
jbh: I've witnessed now time and time again people from all different walks of life being out there in the Bay and having something in them shift. We also have seen over and over and over again what happened in the Gulf of Mexico, what happened in Santa Barbara, what happened on Coos Bay.
The list goes on and on and on of the devastation caused by oil drilling in our waters. I feel like we live in a culture of collective amnesia and ADD because people are just like, ‘oh no, they told us it'll be fine now. It'll totally be fine.’
If you like to drink clean water and breathe clean air, you're an environmentalist whether you think you're one or not.
We have seen over and over again, not only the horrific damage to our ecosystems and our wildlife, but we've also seen that same damage also affects livelihoods, affects heritage, affects people's culture.
So the devastation has shown itself over and over and over to outweigh any amount of money that could be made or any amount of oil. And when people attack those of us who care about these issues and say, 'well, if environmentalists, tree huggers wanna stop the drilling of oil, then they should stop driving.’
It's like, well, actually, we would love to have other solutions. But instead, our taxpayers' dollars are going to make extremely wealthy people more wealthy through things like oil extraction and through war. And it's time to say, ‘No. We don't want these things.' We want this money to go to finding solutions that help our planet, that also help jobs—because they can go hand in hand—and can help protect people's heritage and culture, and also the ecosystems of life that we depend on. I always remind people that the health of the oceans are directly linked to the health of our climate, just like the health of our forest are directly linked to the health of our climate. And I remind people, if you like to drink clean water and breathe clean, air you're an environmentalist whether you think you're one or not.
EM: What kind of future do you dream about?
jbh: I not only dream about a future, I actively engage in making that future a reality now. So everywhere I've been and all the things I'm doing are about creating the future that I want right here and right now.
So the future I want is one where we protect this planet. And I can't even stand these words like 'nature' and 'environment' and 'planet', because in many ways it creates an Other automatically. But we don't have the right language. Many indigenous cultures have language that represents when we say a word, it's actually about our relationship to it.
So it's hard with the English language. But I do my best to be involved in projects that are about helping co-create more connected communities—in person and with the planet. I'm doing that here in the Monterey Bay area.
But also I've been volunteering down in Los Angeles quite a bit. And it's with projects that are about building, supporting, and helping one another in a community versus just isolated actions. So I would love to see a world that has more connected community, more people who not just understand, but deeply feel our kindred relationship with all of life and who choose to live life as a sacred practice and as a way of expressing love and joy, even when we're standing fiercely against these horrors that are happening. To still bring our best to the terror and the violence and the evil that's existing in the world right now.
EM: Is there anything that I haven't asked about that you'd like to add?
jbh: One of the things I remind people is that we're all ancestors of the future.
How would our lives start to shift and change if we thought of ourselves as ancestors? What kind of a legacy do we want our life to leave for those who are still to come? Those we will never meet?
And when I think about that, it always brings tears to my eyes and my heart, because I want to live in a way that honors that I'm an ancestor of the future and honors all those who have come before me, who have made such great sacrifices for the things that so many of us take for granted. We're all ancestors of the future. And to live in a way that honors what that means.
