More than just wealth...

David de Rothschild born on 1978 in London was the youngest to receive the family’s banking fortune. A young wealthy handsome man, instead of being like the typical rich kid he put his time and money into something that would grow; his education. After leaving Collingham College in 1996 he attended Oxford Brookes receiving a 2:1 B.Sc in Political Science and Information Systems. Rothschild later studied at the college of Naturopathies Medicine. By the age of twenty, he started his own business, sold it and bout an organic farm in New Zealand.

In 2006, Rothschild was invited to join and expedition team across the polar cap. They spent over a hundred days crossing the Arctic from Russia to Canada. He became one in forty two people to accomplish this task and the youngest British to do it. Then at age 31 being the youngest Briton to reach both geographical poles. His new mission Plastiki Mission, named after Thor Heyerdehl’s 1947 Kon-Tiki project, is to bring to attention all the non-biodegradable plastic in the world’s oceans by sailing 8,000 miles across the pacific. Throughout the mission he will point out the Trash Vortex, an area of sea containing millions of tons of plastic. This area is believed to be six times the size of UK. On the mission he has his six person crew, including himself, and his global phone because how else would he get in touch with the rest of the world?



Garbage by Los Angeles beach


Trash Vortex on the Pacific coast, a couple hundred miles off Hawaii

In reality this plastic that is forgotten as soon as it hits the water. The plastic is killing more than a hundred thousand mammals and sea turtles each year. The plastic bags, coffee foam cups and bottle caps are often found in dead dolphin and sea lions. About two hundred and fifty billion pounds of plastic pellets are produced each year. The major problem about plastic in the water is that this plastic contains toxic chemicals like DDT and PCBs which were banned ten years ago. These chemicals alter DNA and we have to remember marine life is a major part of our diet. So who are we really hurting? Ourselves?

follow the Journey: http://www.theplastiki.com