David de Rothschild

What exactly is Adventure Ecology?

We're a global network getting kids to learn, act and speak on the environment [by sharing adventure expeditions on their website, among other outreach initiatives].

How did you end up there?

After university, I went on a trip to New Zealand looking for horses—I used to be a horse-rider—and fell in love with New Zealand. I bought an organic farm and turned it into an organic retreat and became obsessed with health and the environment. One day I was having dinner with a friend, and she said, 'Look, my brother's off to Antarctica and they've just lost a team member. I know you do adventure sports, you've done triathlons, why don't you talk to him?’ So I did, and did Antarctica in 2004. Early 2005, I did a double-crossing of Greenland, using kites as training for a North Pole expedition we did in 2006. In a period of three years, I'd spent nearly three-quarters of a year on the ice. So it was a kind of baptism of fire into this world of adventure and expeditions and there's a lot more in the pipeline.

Were you always predisposed to the Great Outdoors?

I was always more curious about what's going on outside the window, often thrown out of the classroom by my teachers because I wasn't paying attention. My dad was very much like that. He'd kick me out and say, 'Go off and come back when you've got something interesting to tell me.' I did a degree in natural medicine and became really fascinated in all the things that we are eating and breathing that are obviously effecting our health, except health and the environment didn't seem to be connected [at that time]. It was almost like health was one issue, environment's another. Then when you start to look at the way our society is, you realize that we compartmentalize everything. But it is quite weird because I hated school and now I find myself an educator. That to me is kind of bizarre.

How do you resolve the inherent conflict between your love of travel and your love of the environment?

I am guilty. Travel is the highest by a long way in my carbon footprint. I try and offset and lower my emissions overall. One of the tips we put in the book is try and find airlines that are doing the right things or trying to cut back.

Your website is a different tactic for education.

Yeah, it's a different way to try and engage. We live in a society that is overstimulated: From instant purchases to glossy magazines to sugary diets, everything is bigger, faster, better. And then we take kids and put them into a 19th-century school system and we wonder why they're looking out the window, why these kids aren't learning, because we're not stimulating them at the same level that they're being stimulated outside of school. We need to engage them using gaming technology and terminology, and give them books that are interactive. You know, kids don't email, that’s old school. It's instant messaging, micro-blogging, so we have to try and deliver information in a way that they feel comfortable with.

How does Adventure Ecology help you fulfill your goals on educating about the environment?

The structure of Adventure Ecology is built on three pillars. The first pillar is adventure: a hands-on field experience, with a story that has the power to captivate. The second pillar is the art program that we run, called Articulate, that's about taking artists out into the field, getting them to respond to the environment, to really use their creativity to tell the story and showcasing their work in the gallery we have up. The third pillar, the most important for me, is education. Especially in America, schools are very insular, so at the moment, we're working with ECIS, the European Council of International Schools, a global network of schools with half a million students, and ISS, which is international schools as well, with probably just under a million students. It's giving them material that they can use.

Tell us a little bit about your last trek.

It was a full-surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, traveling from a tiny little peninsula called Cape Artichesky into Ellesmere Island—basically, from Russia into Canada. Sixteen Inuit sled dogs, two and a half thousand tons of gear, 45 kilos of chocolate, 10 pairs of skis, a couple of thousand photographs: It was an epic voyage across fourteen and a half million square miles of ice. What we saw was surprising: summertime temperatures in wintertime, ice that should have been frozen breaking apart into areas of open water called leads, seals hundreds of miles away from where you usually find them because there was such a huge amount of open water. Having the dogs allowed us to take more equipment to communicate to our audience, to get in a tent at night, open up our Palm Pilots, send photos and voice recordings back to our website, even do live chats through our satellite phones and the web. So, we were communicating with these kids, giving them firsthand experience as we sat in the tent after a long day eating our bowl of pasta.

So what was the inspiration for your book?

I was clearing out my desk at home and came across the worst-case scenario handbooks, and was thinking, 'What will our planet look like in 2050? If all of these predictions that the scientific community are saying happen, what skill set would I need to know as an individual?' At the same time, I was in conversations with the Live Earth group who, when I pitched them the idea, said, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool to create a companion guide to the concerts?' The Global Warming Survivor Handbook is a solution-based book, kind of tongue-in-cheek, something that fits in with the audience that continues to push the solutions after the event. Money from sales, all the royalties, we're donating to The Alliance for Climate Protection.

What would you say to the hardworking, underpaid people who really don't have time to figure out where the lettuce they're buying is coming from? What can they take away from this book?

I think what often happens is there is a sort of thing of, 'Well, I've got three kids and I'm a single mom and money's tight. The environment for me is a luxury issue. Someone else can deal with that because I've got enough problems on my plate.' And for that type of situation, I think that there are a number of things in the book where it doesn't cost anything and in fact, saves you money. By putting on a sweater, you can turn your thermostat down two degrees and save yourself four percent on your annual electricity bill. Just kind of look at yourself and say, 'What can I do, what are the things that I waste in my everyday life? What are the simple things that I can change, rather than leaving the taps or shower running while I answer the phone?; If you want to do it because you believe in the planet, well, that's amazing. But it's still just as amazing if you do it just because it's about saving yourself some money.

I want to ask what beautiful endangered places should people visit before they completely erode, but I guess that would be contributing to the problem….

Because you're encouraging people to get out there and see these places. I think there are a number of places that may not be here in ten, fifteen, twenty years. In ten years, no more old-growth forests in Madagascar. The Great Barrier Reef, by 2050, the whole thing could be gone in terms of the bleaching. There are all these desperate stories and I think that these hot spots need to be relabeled as hope spots. Rather than just watch the decline, we need to re-engineer ourselves to make sure your dollar is going through an eco-conscious travel operator. And really make sure that it does go where it's supposed to. Patagonia is an awesome place to go and see, the Galapagos is a big favorite, Antarctica, you can now go on a cruise. I think if it connects people to nature and inspires you to do something, like it did with me, then it's a great thing.

You recommend auditing your trash—does that include a worm compost bin as well? I must admit, I am a little leery.

You can buy these ones where they're all sealed, you don't have to pick worms out. I hate worms. When I was a kid, I'd pretend: 'I love worms. Go put it on Billy, he hates worms.' And then I'd be like, 'Phew, that worked.' We just got back from Nepal, and we were on this elephant in the middle of the jungle, and it was crashing through everything, knocking everything, and it was just bug city. These things were falling and there I was trying to be very strong, but, you know, 'What is that?? Is it on my head??'

What is your eco-sin?

I have to admit that I actually really enjoy sitting down in the shower, which sometimes means that I have a longer shower than I should. You know, you've had a long day out and you come back battered and bruised and I definitely leave it running a bit longer sometimes, so that's definitely an eco-sin.