David Mayer de Rothschild - The environmentalist

David Mayer de Rothschild (born 25 August 1978) is a British adventurer and environmentalist, and head of Adventure Ecology, an expedition group raising awareness about climate change. He is the youngest of three children of Victoria Schott (born 1949) and Sir Evelyn de Rothschild (b. 1931) of the Rothschild banking family of England. His middle name "Mayer" is taken from the name of the founder of the Rothschild family banking empire, Mayer Amschel Rothschild.

* 1 Early life
* 2 Charity work
* 3 Adventurer
* 4 Literary work
* 5 References
* 6 External links

Early life

David de Rothschild earned a B.Sc (Honors) in Political Science and Information Systems from Oxford Brookes University, a public university in Oxford, England, and an advanced Diploma in Natural Medicine gained by distance learning. He started out as a businessman, establishing an apparel manufacturing and distributing company for licensed brands. His brother Anthony is Co-managing Director of A7 music and some of the apparel his operation produced was under license from musicians such as The Beatles.

Neither he nor his brother have shown interest in joining the family-owned N M Rothschild & Sons London banking business and when their father stepped down as chairman in 2003, cousin David René de Rothschild of the French branch of the family took over as head of the worldwide Rothschild Group.

Charity work

In 2003 David de Rothschild took up residency for a time in Sydney, Australia where he began writing a series of educational books for children and founded a naturopathic/ecological education center in New Zealand, with the additional goal buying an 1,100-acre (4 km2) farm he used to develop self-sufficient organic-farming techniques. Environmentally conscious, he is also the founder of "Sculpt the Future", a charitable organization that works with environmentally disadvantaged communities.

David founded Adventure Ecology whose stated goal is to promote a greater connection with the natural world through a series of high-profile expeditions. The first mission in the series "Top of the world" Mission 1 expedition began on March 4, 2006. The four-member team included de Rothschild and fellow Briton Martin Hartley, along with two Canadians, Paul Landry and his daughter Sarah McNair Landry. After 100 days traversing the Arctic Ocean from Russia To Canada, David de Rothschild become one of 42 people and the youngest British person to ever reach both geographical poles. David de Rothschild is a National Geographic "Emerging Explorer" for its class of 2007.[1] He was also recently made a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum.

Adventurer

A participant in a number of extreme competitions, de Rothschild won his age group in the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. A friend of polar guide Paul Landry, he became involved with eco-adventure and was part of the team that, in June 2005, set a new record for the fastest crossing of the Greenland Icecap. He was a member of the 2004/2005 "Invesco Perpetual Trans-Antarctica Challenge", an expedition that made him the youngest Briton to cross the continent of Antarctica.

Literary work

David wrote the official Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook in 2007, featuring 77 tips to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.[2]