Green Activist: Daryl Hannah

From the spring & summer 2007, greenliving magazine, pages 26-28, an article about Daryl Hannah and her environmental activism:

SENSE & SENSITIVITY
Daryl Hannah Walks Lightly and Talks Positively

by Julia Dault

When Darryl Hannah was a child she made two very important decisions. The first makes sense for a girl with big dreams; she wanted to be in the movies. The second is less likely for a young 'un; at age 11, she decided to become a vegetarian.

What evolved out of her childhood hopes and decisions has been success in every sense. Not only is Hannah in the movies but she has also built a film career that spans nearly 30 years and includes an astounding number of roles, including Pris in Ridley Scott's cult classic Blade Runner (1982), Madison in Ron Howard's Splash (1984), Annelle in Steel Magnolias (1989) and more recently, the unforgettable one-eyed assassin Elie Driver in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Volume 2 (2004). And her vegetarianism? Not once has she strayed from her promise to herself. And in fact, her determination and her love of nature set her on a course for lifelong environmental activism.

"I grew up on the 42nd floor of a building in downtown Chicago," she says, "and every summer, my dad used to send us to camp in the Rockies. There was no electricity, no running water - we pitched tents, cooked in the open. I found that the world made sense to me in nature."

The order she found out in the wild has since translated into education, mindfulness, drive and a belief in the importance of even the smallest gesture, all integral to Hannah's everyday life. "I like to focus on solutions," she says. "I like to inspire people to see the positives, the innovations, the people out there who are making a difference." Hannah's efforts haven't gone unrecognized. Since 2004, she has won a number of awards, including the first Influencer Award from the National Biodisel Board and the Ongoing Commitment Award from the Environmental Media Association.

So what, exactly does Daryl Hannah do? Well, the more appropriate question might be: what doesn't she do?

For starters, with the help of a loyal editor, she writers, directs and produces her own series of weekly video blogs called dhlovelife (www.dhlovelife.com), which has a devoted following. "We get letters from moms, grandmothers, scientists, all types of different people," she says. Teachers have asked for permission to use the episodes in their classrooms. The show's subjects are diverse, with a light yet informative mix of education and inspiration. The opening credits alone set the tone for the series, with an ecstatic Hannah skating - and falling, and laughing - on a wintry natural rink.

The site is also a portal for everything from news stories about plastic-bag recycling to corporate watch-dogging to more in-depth reports on issues bit and small, such as global warming, animal sanctuaries, biodynamic farming and more. "My goal is to help guide people," Hannah says about the ways she organizes and prioritizes the information on the site. "I have sources I rely on and can get authentic answers. I like being able to help people make the better choices."

One of Hannah's major concerns is green-washing, increasingly popular co-opting of "green" labelling that doesn't always indicate a truly green choice or product. "Greening is often used in advertising to brand products, especially by large corporations," she explains. "GE, BP, Shell Oil - you sometimes see commercials with windmills, solar panels and farmers, but what are those companies really doing? There are no standards or restrictions on using the term 'green.' It's important to be really thorough and know exactly what you're buying."

This quest for knowledge has propelled Hannah to all sorts of places, from Rwanda to local farmers' markets and everywhere in between. For three weeks in June of last year, for example, she joined Joan Baez and Julia Butterfly Hill in chaining herself to a walnut tree on the South Central Farm in Los Angeles - the largest urban farm in the United States - to protest the farmers' eviction (she was arrested, along with the other two women and more than 40 farmers and their supporters). Of the occasion, she says, "The South Central Farm represented the perfect, simple solution to the crisis we're facing as a planet."

Of course, what also helped raise awareness was Hannah's own fame, though she is too modest to call it that. "I realized early on that the only purpose for..." she trails off, "the attention aspects of it...." Finally: "I could use it to communicate something positive," she concludes. In other words, her fame has helped her in her consciousness-raising when it comes to the environment.

And because of inexplicable, voyeuristic need to know about celebrities, Hannah's personal commitment to living lightly is a perfect example for those in search of a well-known model citizen. "I power my house with solar panels, my car runs on biodiesel, there's a great water system, everything is made from recycled materials. I use energy-saving appliances and light bulbs," she says. "And my house is small, it's only one room with an additional room outside. Smaller is better. People need to be encouraged to live more simply."

For Hannah, simple living also means kinder living, both to the world and to yourself. "It's a constant process of refinement," she says. "It's not necessary to be hard and fine-tuned. I'm always trying to improve, to get better."

And though Hannah's footprint is small and her awareness - and commitment - large, like all of us, the current environmental crisis can sometimes seem like too big a problem to solve - or even affect. "Oh yes," she says with a laugh, "I can feel overwhelmed. It's natural, everyone does. The challenge is to bring yourself back around, address the pressing issues and refocus your energies. The best thing you can do is look for answers." She pauses, searching for the right words, then concludes with conviction, "They're everywhere."