Voice 1 On December 10, 1997, Julia Butterfly Hill climbed into a tree.. She did not come down for two years.[r]
(1)Julia Hill Lives in a Tree 05 May, 2014 Redwood Tree, Grant Grove, Kings Canyon National Park, California Photo Credit: Frank Kehren, via Flickr Audio Player pop-up player Download Options » Normal Quality (Mono - 4.29 MB) » High Quality (Stereo - 13.74 MB) Voice Welcome to Spotlight I’m Bruce Gulland Voice And I’m Liz Waid Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live Voice On December 10, 1997, Julia Butterfly Hill climbed into a tree She did not come down for two years She ate in the tree She slept in the tree She became the tree's protector But why would Hill this? And what made her finally come down? Today’s Spotlight is on Julia Butterfly Hill and her work for the environment Voice "I never thought that I was going to live in a tree If I had seen what was coming, I would have gone screaming in the other direction But life does not give it to us that way Life just gives it to us moment by moment, day by day We show up and live it the best that we can." (2) Voice Julia Butterfly Hill said these words during a conference in Washington She told a large group of people about how she became an environmental activist Environmental activists work to protect the earth They believe that people should protect all plants and animals But Hill did not always care about these things Voice At the age of 16 Hill quit school and worked at a restaurant For many years, she was only interested in making money and material things Then one day she had a serious car accident It changed her life Hill told the magazine Grist what happened: Voice “I had a car wreck in August of 1996 I was driving my friend’s car We were hit from behind by a drunk driver It took 10 months of physical and brain therapy to recover from the wreck During that time, I realized I wanted to find a more powerful purpose for being here on this planet.” Voice As soon as her body healed, Hill travelled to the west of the United States There she saw an amazing sight - the ancient redwood trees of California These trees are reddish brown in colour Many of them are thousands of years old But what is most amazing is their size; redwood trees can grow up to 120 metres high And they can be up to metres across These giant redwoods are the largest trees in the whole world Voice The wood from redwood trunks is very hard This wood makes strong building structures such as parts of railroads and buildings So logging companies cut down many of the giant redwoods to use for construction There are not many forests of these trees left Many environmental activists want to protect the remaining trees The redwoods are very important to the environment Voice In 1997 a group called Earth First was working to protect a particular group of trees They were negotiating with the logging company but they needed more time They decided to send someone up into a redwood tree They hoped this would stop the company from cutting the trees down Julia Butterfly Hill volunteered She wanted to go up in the tree She tells reporter Judith Fertig about the day she went up into the tree She named it ‘Luna’ Voice “On December 10, 1997, I put on the belt and ropes and went up into Luna It was 55 metres up I thought it would be three or four weeks in the tree But it turned into two years and eight days I returned to the ground only after the company agreed to protect Luna and the surrounding wooded area.” Voice Julia Hill lived in the tree for over two years without ever coming down She learned to survive in this difficult environment She walked barefoot on the tree branches She never washed the sticky sap from the tree off of her feet It helped her to walk on the tree branches Hill built two small platforms to live on She had a large piece of plastic material to protect her But she was never comfortable It is always cold and wet in a redwood tree There were even very serious winter storms while Hill was in the tree The wind and cold almost knocked Hill out of the tree But she did not fall - she survived Voice Hill cooked her food with a small stove Her friends visited her two times every week They sent what Hill needed up through a pulley system of ropes Once, they even sent her a chocolate birthday cake! But most of the time, it was very difficult and lonely to live in a tree Voice Finally, after years of arguing, the logging company decided to protect Luna They signed an agreement to never cut down this giant redwood tree or the trees around it When Hill put her feet on the earth, she began to cry But from that moment Hill has continued her work to protect the environment People around the world want to meet her and hear her story Hill uses her fame to encourage people to work for the environment in their own communities She told the San Francisco Chronicle: (3) Voice “Everywhere I go to talk about my experiences, I relate it with what is happening locally I hope to get the general public listening, the ones who want to see the woman who sat in the tree for two years." Voice Since her time in the redwood tree, Hill has done other kinds of environmental activism She even had to leave the country of Ecuador She was supporting indigenous people in their protests against mining companies Hill works with many different groups But she still lives a very simple life She does not eat any products made from animals She does not use things that create waste when they are thrown away And Hill encourages other people to these things also She told the conference in Washington: Voice “We live in a world that is full of problems And we are the solutions to those problems After I came down from living in that tree, I started realizing how every moment we make choices Every single choice changes the world - every single one of them Every moment of every day we are looking for ways to be living examples of all that is beautiful and humble and just and amazing about our world." Voice The writer of this program was Rena Dam The producer was Luke Haley [The producer was Nick Mangeolles] The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight You can listen to this program again, and read it, on the internet at http://www.radioenglish.net This program is called, ‘Julia Hill Lives in a Tree’ Voice You can also leave your comments on our website Or you can email us at radio at radioenglish dot net You can also find us on Facebook - just search for spotlightradio We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program Goodbye - See more at: http://spotlightenglish.com/listen/julia-hill-lives-in-a-tree#sthash.bJBjUD3x.dpuf (4)