Arts & Culture

Daryl Hannah And Julia Butterfly Hill Preach Environmental Responsibility

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published April 20, 2011 at 1:42 PM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

Daryl Hannah (L) and Julia Butterfly Hill say living in a sustainable way is one of many choices individuals can make to help the environment.

Daryl Hannah And Julia Butterfly Hill Preach Environmental Responsibility

Actress Daryl Hannah and environmentalist Julia Butterfly Hill were the keynote speakers at San Diego State University's GreenFest week.

Hannah and Hill hope to inspire students to push for environmental change.

Film star Daryl Hannah is an environmental activist who practices what she preaches.

She lives in a low impact off grid solar home with gray-water systems and organic garden.

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Hannah said she and Hill hope to inspire more college students to become environmental activists.

"Just this week there were 10,000 college students in Washington, D.C. learning how to be proactive and engaging our politicians in that conversation and demanding a future that is just, humane and a livable world," said Hannah. "So that's really exciting. Kids are motivated, kids are inspired."

Julia Butterfly Hill climbed 180 feet into the branches of a 1,000-year-old redwood tree in Northern California.

She lived in the tree called "Luna" for more than two years. The tree was permanently protected.

Hill said the experience taught her that great action is also about making daily choices to help the environment.

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"If I am going to get coffee in a paper cup with a plastic lid, my choice just said it's OK to cut down a tree for a paper cup, and it's OK to drill for oil to create a plastic lid to go on my paper cup for coffee, that I'm going to throw away," said Hill. "Which means I'm throwing away my planet, I'm throwing away the future. If I want to change the global conversation I have to look at how I'm perpetuating the problem in my daily life and bring my greatness, bring the bigness to those small moments."

Hill said "think globally, act locally" is more than a catchy slogan when people make choices each day to help the environment.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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