Messenger in a Bottle: David de Rothschild

Date: October 2, 2009 | Category: Lifestyle, Media, Transport, Travel, ecoMan

Ecofab founder, Zem Joaquin, recently caught up with her good friend, David de Rothschild, to interview him for the Men We Love (and do we ever!) feature in Coco Eco Magazine. Read on to hear what the hunky bachelor is up to and learn about why he’s spending so much time with a pile of plastic bottles.

Ever dreamed of setting sail on the open ocean with a handsome explorer? This fall, thanks to modern technology’s satellites and video streaming, you can.

Last year David de Rothschild and friends set up shop in San Francisco to build a catamaran constructed out of recycled plastic bottles. A couple of months ago David gave Bill McDonough and me a tour of the Cradle to Cradle inspired workshop. Though originally skeptical, I walked away with a burning desire to know more about this boat, its crew and the waters they will chart.

David, a world class adventurer and activist wanted to draw attention to the unbelievable mass of garbage (especially plastic) accumulating in our seas. And to do so, he will take us on a journey (eventually) to the Pacific Gyre where we see the most poignant example of human impact on the oceans.

Named one of the sexiest bachelors alive, David has a titillating way of presenting the devastation. He is charming yet informed but not easily daunted. Ecofabulous caught up with the British environmentalist to find out more about his motivations and aspirations.

1. What really inspired you to set sail on this incredibly ambitious mission?

In June 2006 I read a report issued by UNEP called ‘Action Urged to Avoid Deep Trouble in the Deep Seas’ which alerted me to the fundamental issues facing our oceans. After reading this and on further investigation I felt I had to do something. True to Adventure Ecology’s values I wanted to create a compelling and pioneering adventure that would not only be informative but would capture the imagination of a global audience and empower them to act more responsibly towards our planet.

One of the inspirations behind The Plastiki adventure was Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition, The Kon-Tiki, which saw Heyerdahl and five like-minded adventurers traveling to Peru where they built a replica of an ancient Inca raft from balsa wood and other native materials and sailed it across the Pacific to test his theories on early Peruvian settlements. By putting his theories into practice in such an audacious and bold way Heyerdahl was able to raise phenomenal awareness and educate generations of people, which is what we hope to achieve with The Plastiki, but within the context of the environment and the world’s oceans, highlighting the growing impact we are having on our most remote and fragile ecosystems.

2. Plastiki is a project under the umbrella of Adventure Ecology. What is Adventure Ecology and why did you establish it?

The mission of Adventure Ecology is to captivate the imagination, motivate and ultimately activate. We do this through adventure. We take the issue and create a story primarily through expedition and exploration. The current series is about promoting a better understanding and respect for one of the most pressing ecological issues of our time; waste.

As far as the establishment of AE, it wasn’t exactly planned per se but really a culmination of things. I have always been fascinated first and foremost by health and the concept that you are what you eat, and you are what you breathe, which took me down the path of organics and understanding the environment that way. As I became more involved in organic farming I naturally became more curious about the environment as a whole and the ‘green space’ surrounding us, but when I started looking around for more information I found it all to be a bit aggressive and guilt mongering. Whereas the information would be interesting, I didn’t know what to do with it and would go away feeling a bit defeated and guilty in the face of all these problems rather than liberated to take positive action.

It was then during an expedition across the Antarctica in 2004 that it dawned on me how adventure can be utilized to create an alternative and accessible information platform on the environment and act as a catalyst for change. I felt that by taking these adventures and telling their stories, rather than allowing them to dissipate and be forgotten, it would allow the journey to continue resonating and build a community up and around them. So it really was an organic process that essentially grew out of what I felt to be a gap in the market for information that was compelling, inspiring and informative but also inclusive and fun. I think that for so long the issue of ‘green’ was such an overwhelming concept and I wanted to take it out of that realm in order to captivate, engage and encourage a new community to get involved and take positive action for our Planet. We can make saving the planet an adventure.

3. Well I can clearly see how the Plastiki mission fits in with the overall objectives of Adventure Ecology! It sounds like a spectacular adventure that will alter perceptions about where our junk ends up.

Absolutely! The goal of the expedition is to not only continue encouraging the world to focus on reducing, reusing and recycling more of its natural resources but ultimately to think smart by re-thinking waste as a resource.

It is such re-think that will ultimately help to promote and provide stepping-stones towards the type of thinking that will lead individuals, business and industry alike to start living within the equilibrium that our natural world craves.

4. You’ve been working on this project for some time. What has the overall response been? Have the boat and the mission been received well?

The perception to date has been two-fold; the non-sailing community is wowed by the magnitude of the challenge and often poses questions specifically on the systems, the crew and how we will live together in such close quarters. Kids have asked what we do with our waste if we keep it on board. However, the sailing community thinks we are quite mad and struggle to fathom how we will sail across the Pacific on a 60ft catamaran made almost entirely out of reclaimed plastic bottles!

5. You could have chosen any port, why did you select San Francisco to set up shop?

We chose San Francisco for its international location and proximity to Hawaii. The bay, with its sailing community, has been an ideal testing ground and we are lucky enough to have the ongoing support of Mayor Gavin Newsom. Also, with the link to its ‘Sister City’, Sydney, it made sense to start and end the voyage on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean.

Click here to read the rest of the article in Coco Eco Magazine.

*Photo credit: Adventure Ecology.

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