I see how these beautiful forests are now open to destruction because of technology. Companies are able to get into more and more remote places that weren't economically viable before.
— Julia Butterfly Hill
I've always felt that as long as I was able, I was supposed to give all I've got to ensure a healthy and loving legacy for those still to come, and especially for those with no voice.
It became clear to me that our value as people is not in our stock portfolios and bank accounts but in the legacies we leave behind.
I didn't climb into that tree expecting to become a spokesperson.
I'm so drastically independent; I don't tend to flourish in relationships.
I've got two bikes that get me everywhere I need to go. And public transportation.
We live in a world that tells us not to care, to consume everything in sight. It tells us that being cool and being an individual actually means buying what everyone else is buying and doing what everyone else is doing.
I'm a poster child for Luddites. It was a challenge for me to open myself up the tech world.
Where can you look in your daily life and find ways to do it better, to be more thoughtful of the Earth, to be more thoughtful of people?
I hope to get the general public listening, the ones curious to see the woman who sat in the tree for two years.
Even though I didn't realize that I was about to launch into a two-year struggle, a deep and compelling sense told me that I had to walk the path I'd chosen - or rather, the path that seemed to have chosen me.
My father was an itinerant preacher who traveled the country's heartland preaching from town to town and church to church.
I can hold space for people who think I'm a nut job. It's cool. But I know from my own experience what I experienced. I know what I learned. I know what I saw. I know what I heard.
I don't really watch movies. I don't own a TV.
We live in a disposable society. We throw so much away. But it doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from the planet and it comes from future generations' lives.
I don't do the media because of 'Woo-woo, Julia Butterfly,' as I call it. I'm not into promoting me. I'm into talking about why I've done what I've done, why I continue to do this work and why other people should care.
We live in a world that is full of problems, and we are the solutions to those problems.
I asked God to use me as a vessel, so I guess you have to be careful what you ask for.
When I pray, I ask for guidance in my life to be the best person I can be, to learn what I need to learn, and to grow from what I learn.
I live in a tree called Luna. I am trying to save her life. Believe me, this is not what I intended to do with my own.
Since I became accidentally famous, it did give me access and, through that access, power that I couldn't just walk away from.
I have been stubborn and getting into trouble since I was 2, but I learned how to redirect that into good causes.
For me, love is not about froufrou New Age-ism. It's about a way of living and honoring the interconnectedness of life and accepting our responsibility and our power to change the world for the better.
I don't endorse products, only actions and beliefs.
I think really what needs to happen is the people of the United States need to stand up and say, 'Oil is an energy model from the past. It doesn't work for the planet, it doesn't work for the people, it never has and it never will.'
