|
|
|
The Butterfly on the Redwood 红杉树上的蝴蝶
为了保护世界上罕见的、珍贵的红杉树免遭砍伐，一位名叫“蝴蝶”的24岁女性不畏艰辛，在一棵红杉树上度过了738天。朱莉娅·巴特芙莱尔·希尔凭借自己的勇气和努力赢得了最终的胜利，同时她的智慧与善谈也使她成了一位出色的环保活动家。 It is an overcast1 morning and we are standing with Patrick in his dooryard2 in Stafford, a small community in northern California' s Humboldt County. A short distance down the road lies the site of the recent clearcutting-caused landslide that wiped out seven homes.3 Patrick was one of the lucky ones --- the landslide only destroyed his water supply, not his house. Near the top of the ridge, just to the south of a clearcut scar, I can see "Luna4", a massive, 1800-year old, 200-foot tall Coast Redwood5, silhouetted6 against the sky. And somewhere high in Luna' s crown is the 6 foot by 8 foot platform that Julia "Butterfly" Hill has occupied for 738 days. Typically 200 to 350 feet tall, reaching into the sky and living for up to 2,000 years, ancient Coast Redwoods are truly one of the great living wonders of the world. These majestic Redwoods, the tallest trees on Earth, have lessened to 3 or 4% of the original 2 million acres of Coast Redwoods. The remainder has been rans acked by logging companies over the past 140 years. Julia' s occupation of Luna has saved the tree, preventing it from being cut, but it has not been an easy two years and eight days. To start with, in meteorologic al terms she could hardly have picked a worse winter to camp out in the top of a Redwood.7 With Luna near the top of a high ridge and her platform in the top of the tree, fully exposed to the elements, Julia had to endure the high winds and to rrential8 rains in one of the most severe winters in California' s recorded history. In this treehouse, Hill spent her days reading, writing poetry and cooking veget arian food. She kept fit by climbing the tree' s massive, spreading branches. The treehouse had no outhouse9, and Hill revealed that many people asked how she adapted to that. According to Hill, she sent her refuse10 down in a bucket, and her supporters hauled it away. But Hill was not totally removed from civilization. Sometimes her friends would climb up to visit her. And she had a cellular phone, which she used to communicate her protest to media around the world. Then there were logging companies' efforts to dislodge her from the tree --- company climbers sent up after her, round-the-clock security guards camped out at the base of Luna for ten days in an attempt to cut off her supply lines, floodlights and the blasting of air horns throughout the night to prevent her from sleeping, and the close flight of huge helicopters. However, the hardest part for Julia might have been watching Luna' s close neighbors fall to the chain saw11 as the hillside was logged off during the winter. About fifty large Redwoods originally stood in the grove with Luna, their once proud forms now reduced to stumps.12 But with a wisdom in her for 24 years, this extra ordinary woman has survived it all, emerging as one of the most eloquent and pass ionate speechmakers that the movement has seen.13 "I understand to some people, I'm just a dirty, tree-hugging hippie14, but I can' t imagine to take a chain saw to something like this," Hill said shortly after kneeling and kissing the ground at the tree' s massive trunk. Yes, walking in a grove of ancient redwoods is a truly spiritual experience. One would never have a pure chance to understand these majestic, ancient trees if you simply see standing timbers or try to earn money from cutting them.15 To even c onsider cutting them down is incomprehensible and logging these ancient forests reveals the profundity of human arrogance, perhaps more clearly than any other act our species commits. While still in Luna' s branches Julia Butterfly founded the Circle of Life Founda tion to build on the tremendous outreach begun in the tree. And she shared her un ique experience of living with Luna with many constituencies --- school children, labor unions, indigenous people16, celebrities, politicians and millions of everyd ay folks. Julia has been able to appeal to diverse audience because she speaks from the heart with a moral conviction that brings people to tears and calls them to action. "There is no way to be in the presence of these ancient beings and not be affected. There' s something more than a profit, and that' s life." Actually Julia' s message is simply that
we as planetary citizens need to become informed about local and global
issues, and then do our part to make a better world.
|
