David de Rothschild on Inspiring Change and Learning to Play

Explorer and environmentalist David de Rothschild appeared on the The Rurbanist page in the Regeneration Issue.

The Rurbanist: David de Rothschild

What’s bringing you joy at the moment? Becoming a father in the last few years is without a doubt one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. It’s amazing to allow yourself to play, something we don’t do enough as adults. I am a firm believer that when you connect play with passion and purpose, it’s the perfect combination to unlock whatever you want to achieve. Children have also vastly altered my outlook on how I approach life. After 20 years in the environmental space, it’s easy to become jaded and cynical, but it has actually sharpened my resolve to try and do more for nature.

What’s annoying you most right now? The idea that we can halt catastrophic collapse when we decide to act, as if nature will just fall in line and work to our timetable, is more than reckless. It’s suicidal! We’ve let so many fragile ecosystems slide into self-perpetuating negative feedback loops that have either irreversibly changed or are on the brink of collapse. When nature fails, we fail. It’s time to put aside self-interest, fear, nationalism and profit at all costs, and recognise that when we collectively unlock our human potential together, we can achieve anything we want.

Advice you’d give to your 15-year-old self? While the days may seem long, the years are short. In other words, don’t waste a moment. Take advantage of the blissful abundance of energy, naivety and fearlessness.

What keeps you awake at night? My brain. I have always loved the art of playing with conscious/lucid dreaming. I tend to find that a lot of my ideas come up when I lie down. It’s great for productivity but not so good for restoration.

A moment that changed everything? Twenty years ago, I spent 100 days skiing across Antarctica. The sheer vastness and scale of that magical continent left an indelible mark on my spirit and the connection I feel and hold for nature. It left me with an overwhelming sense of being a tiny part of something much bigger and more powerful, and feeling halfway between a question and an answer, to which I have spent the last 20 years answering and looking for.

David in Antarctica

Where do you go to escape? There is a beautiful place called the Kyle of Tongue in the far north of Scotland. It’s truly raw and wild, an incredible spot. There is something in the soil that grounds you, that gives you a feeling of belonging to something unspoken but very much storied.

What does sustainability mean to you? It means challenging the status quo and the ‘that’s just the way we’ve done it’ mentality, and recognising that we need to be constantly trying to improve and leave behind outdated, toxic and damaging systems that don’t serve us anymore.

Your greatest triumph? Becoming a father. There isn’t anything else in life that I’ve experienced that’s driven me to change my outlook on life so quickly.

Your greatest failure? When I first started in the field of environmentalism around 20 years ago, I most likely thought my point of view was very interesting and important. I quickly realised that was a massive failure, not only because worthiness is the death of the cause, but the quickest way to fail, especially in the environmental space, is to preach by telling others what to do or how to act. From that moment on, I completely changed my approach to being more focused on creative storytelling to problem solve. You inspire change; you can’t dictate it.

David de Rothschild is the founder of The Lost Explorer Mezcal. thelostexplorer.com