AMY GOODMAN: You are listening to Democracy Now! Among the other people who were at the protest was Julia Butterfly Hill. On December 18, 1999, Julia inspired millions when she triumphantly descended from the giant redwood tree that she called Luna, concluding a two-year tree sit, which resulted in the protection of a group of redwood trees in Humboldt County, California.

More recently, Julia Butterfly was deported from Ecuador in July after being detained along with seven Ecuadorians for a peaceful protest against the construction of an oil pipeline through Ecuador’s Amazon region. The oil pipeline targeted by the environmentalists is over 500 kilometers long and is to transport petroleum from the Ecuadorian Amazon across the Andes to the Pacific coast for refining and export.

Julia Butterfly, you’ve been traveling the globe recently. What brought you to Washington Square?

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: Well, I came because I have been working, actually, with a group of visionary business leaders who believe that, as business leaders, they have — as people, they have a consciousness of peace, and, as business leaders, they’re mandated to kind of step out as business leaders for peace. And they were supporting some of the Peaceful Tomorrows vigil that was held. So I came to be there and be in witness that there are many people that believe there’s another solution to violence besides using more violence, that that’s never going to bring about the lasting peace our world needs, and to carry that message and to be an individual person in a message for peace in this time that people’s fears and people’s sadnesses are being used as a screen and as a button to push to justify the Bush administration’s hunger for war.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about your trip to Ecuador and what happened? What landed you in an Ecuadorian prison?

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: Sure, and it really ties right in with what’s going on, because what happened on September 11th, and our response as a — and the administration’s response to it, is really about the war over resources. And a lot of power comes from who controls the resources. And unfortunately, we’re seeing that because America is addicted to resources and disposability and all the resources we throw away on a daily basis, it creates a pressure around the world. And we have this equation in our mind that says “freedom equals our right to do whatever we want,” and which translates into “buy whatever we want and then throw it away.”

And what’s happening — this translated into what’s happening in Ecuador because of our addiction to oil. What’s really interesting is that I was — I went there to stand in solidarity with the people of Ecuador, to stand up against the oil pipeline. And what we came in contact with, time and time again, was military police. And what I found out while I was there is that most of that military police in Ecuador is funded by the U.S. war on drugs. And I thought it was interesting, because I think our largest addiction in this country is the drug of oil. And so, this pipeline is being protected by these military police, who have no qualms about doing anything to anyone.

I ended up going to Ecuador because I had heard about tree-sitters in the Mindo region, in a cloud rainforest that’s just spectacular, literally hundreds of species that exist nowhere else in the world. It seemed that life was growing on top of life. And where that life was growing, there was something crawling on top of that. It was just this incredible — every inch was teeming with diversity. And they’re putting this pipeline through in this Mindo region. The Indigenous people said, “We don’t want it here.” And they tried everything they could. And then they heard about the tree sits that happened in California, including the Luna tree sit that I was a part of, and said, “That’s what we’re going to do.” And so they took to the trees. And it was when I heard about that that I made a commitment to go, and that’s what brought me there.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what you mean by tree sit, for those who aren’t familiar with what you did and what many others are doing.

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: Tree sitting is a form of protest where people actually climb into the trees and live to try and halt devastation of an ecosystem and peoples who live there, to try and call attention. That’s one of the largest reasons for tree sits, is to try and bring a spotlight to the point where a place is becoming a product, and show people what happens to the place and the people and the animals who live there when we consume as we do. So, tree sitting actually came to the United States over 15 years ago from England as a form of protest, so I was not the first tree-sitter, nor am I the last. People are still in the trees as we speak.

In Ecuador, the tree-sitters came down and bought the — were able to purchase the land, and now they’re trying to come from that angle. It’s very difficult for them to do things like tree sits there, because every member of the family is needed in the survival of the family. So it’s very, very hard for people in those regions to go miles away from their community and take their support of that community up into the woods. So they’ve been trying everything they could, and that’s why I decided I had to go. What I went through in Ecuador pales in comparison to what these people have been going through for over 20 years.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you were ultimately deported?

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: That’s right. It was very interesting. The whole thing ended up happening on the last day. I thought, “Wow, OK, there’s — nothing’s going to happen. You know, I’ve been here for” — I guess I was there for about 12 or 13 days. And I was expecting — it was the last day. I thought, “Well, we’ve made it through.” We had a couple of points of confrontation where I thought, “This might be a point where I’m about to be arrested.” And every time, the incredible Ecuadorians that I was with did such a wonderful job of holding a line of peace very strongly in the midst of some intense situations. I toured the pipeline. I saw devastation. I passed three oil spills in one day.

AMY GOODMAN: And the pipeline has been constructed by which company?

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: It’s a consortium called the OCP consortium, and it’s made up of Occidental Oil, which is — you know, that’s one of those companies that every time you hear about a problem surrounding oil, their name’s right there, with support from Alberta Energy in Canada, Kerr-McGee. The bank financing the pipeline is from Germany. There’s an Italian company. So it’s a consortium of different ones. And then —

AMY GOODMAN: Is the World Bank involved?

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: Oh, yes, the World Bank is involved, in that they helped fund the pipeline. And they’re — most of the money from the pipeline is not even going to the Ecuadorian government and people. What little of it is going to the Ecuadorian government and people, 80% of it is mandated by the World Bank to go back to pay back the loan.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you going to be at the World Bank protests in Washington at the end of September?

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL: I am not going to be able to be there, although I’m doing my best to mobilize people to be there. I was there in the last round, and it was very interesting, because I was almost arrested on the streets, and then, a few months later, ended up being in a meeting in the building where they had me come in. And I started laughing at the beginning of the meeting, and I said, “You do understand, a couple of months ago you tried to have me arrested, right?” And they said, “Yes.” And so, that was an interesting dialogue. But in Ecuador, I was eventually arrested and deported. We’re still trying to figure out what the charges were. There were two letters asking for my deportation, and they were both from the oil companies.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Julia Butterfly, I want to thank you for being with us. Julia Butterfly Hill wrote a book about the tree and the struggle to save the redwoods, called The Legacy of Luna.

You are listening to Democracy Now! That ends the program. If you’d like to order a video or audio cassette copy, you can call 1-800-881-2359. That’s 1-800-881-2359. Our website is democracynow.org. That’s www.democracynow.org. Our email address, mail@democracynow.org. Democracy Now! produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Alex Wolfe. Mike Di Filippo is our engineer and music maestro, sitting in for Anthony Sloan. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for listening.