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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Julia 'Butterfly' Hill

Aired July 21, 2002 - 18:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Julia "Butterfly" Hill spent two years in a tree protesting logging in the Western U.S. Now one of America's most outspoken environmental activists is free from an Ecuador jail, where she was protesting an oil pipeline in the rainforest.

Just this past week, Hill led a protest in Quito against the Ecuadorian oil company, OCP, which is partly owned by a U.S. company, Occidental Petroleum. Arrested and deported, she is now back in California.

Julia "Butterfly" Hill joins us from San Francisco to talk about her rainforest odyssey. And I should add, we did attempt to get reaction from the government of Ecuador in response to the story, but our calls were not returned. We will continue to try.

Julia, thanks so much for joining us this evening, and welcome back to the United States.

JULIA "BUTTERFLY" HILL, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: Thanks for the opportunity. I'd like to mention one brief thing just in comment to the opening, that you said that I led the protest, and that was one of the charges that they tried to levy against me, the Ecuadorian government, and I'd just like to clarify that. I did not lead the protest, although I was honored to stand in solidarity with the Ecuadorian people who began that protest because their family members are dying, their water is polluted, their land and their area is being polluted by the oil exploitation in Ecuador.

LIN: Julia, maybe it's just because of your high public profile. I mean, everybody remembers the protest that you had up in a tree for so long. I don't know anybody who's lived in a tree for two years. Why did you pick this project of all projects, knowing the risks going down?

HILL: Well, I've been working for a while with a group called Amazon Watch, based in the United States, that's been working with the Ecuadorian people for about 10 years now. And I heard that community members of the Mindo region, which has been listed as one of the most biodiverse areas in the entire world, part of the Cloud rainforest, the OCP pipeline goes through 11 so-called protected areas.

And this region is one. And there's hundreds and hundreds of species of birds that are found nowhere else in the world, plants, medicines, you name it, so it's obviously linked to the forest, which I love. But I heard the community members in Mindo actually took to the trees to try to stop the pipeline and call about attention. And when I heard that, I thought I have to go, especially when I found that over 50 percent of the oil being exported out of Ecuador is coming to the United States to be refined and to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) United States consumers to consume.

Also, Kerr-McGee and Occidental Petroleum, both U.S.-based companies, are part of this consortium, and they are knowingly dumping huge amounts of oil and toxic chemicals used to pull the oil out of the ground into these open, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) pits, killing people with cancer. I met young children whose skin is covered in sores from them burning these chemicals into the air and dumping it into the water. So I felt a responsibility, especially as a United States citizen, to go and try and document and lend international support.

LIN: Got you. Well, let me read back to you a quote that we have from an executive at Occidental Petroleum. He says -- this is from Larry Meriage of Occidental Petroleum. He says: "Hill asked OCP for a meeting down there. I said, 'extend them every courtesy.' But she shows up with 50 protesters, they storm the lobby and demand that OCP meet with the entire group." Julia, why not work back channels? Why such a public display?

HILL: Well, first I'd like to say that Larry unequivocally lying. And I say -- I know that's a strong word -- but I have proof. I showed the -- the protesters showed up, but I asked for a meeting with the total of seven people. After I was arrested, eventually the Occidental offices in Ecuador and Quito agreed to meet with the six other people that they originally refused to agreed with, so we have proof that we were asking only for seven.

And I think that we see oftentimes that corporations, including Occidental, including the West LB (ph) bank that's financing this from Germany and the other companies involved, that they oftentimes use lies, huge lies to try and cover up their mess. And in this case, it's an oil mess.

LIN: Julie, is it also a lie, according to the government and Occidental Petroleum, 52,000 jobs would be created by this pipeline, some $2.5 billion in foreign aid would come to the people of Mindo. Do you think that the people of Mindo know this, and what could be wrong with that? There is a trade-off there.

HILL: Well, they are trying to hold economics up as an excuse for exploiting the land, the water and the people. I visited one family after another whose lives have been devastated by this. There's actually only 300 permanent long-term jobs being -- being as a result of this. So that's the first thing. There's only 300 permanent jobs.

Secondly, before the oil exploitation in Ecuador, the outstanding government that was 200 million, in the 30 years since the exploitation, that number has jumped to $16 billion. So economically, over -- the Ecuadorian government, actually, gets very little of the money that comes from the oil exploration, and 80 percent of what little they get actually has to go to pay back the IMF-World Bank lows. So the IMF and World Bank are pushing for this, but once again, the people never see any money. What they see is polluted water they can no longer drink, polluted land they can no longer grow food on, plant -- cancer cluster rates skyrocketing, children dying...

LIN: But Julie, what are you going to do? What can you possibly do? Sit on the pipeline for a couple of years? I mean, how far are you willing to take this?

HILL: Well, 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. Demand that the new forms of technology that we have be subsidized, be given money so that we can -- we can free ourselves from this addiction to the drug of oil that does nothing but hurt the people and the planet.

And so I'm calling especially upon the American public to stand up and demand better fuel efficiency to begin with, and to lend international solidarity to these people.

LIN: I appreciate the time you have given us tonight.

HILL: Thank you.

LIN: Thank you very much. Julia "Butterfly" Hill, a continual battle on that side. And Occidental, if you're out there and you want to come on camera, you are more than welcome to respond.

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