CNT: You're a modern-day explorer. Are you inspired by any historical figures?
De Rothschild: Plastiki is influenced by Thor Heyerdahl's 1947 Kon-Tiki voyage across the Pacific, but in general I'm not. In England, there's an obsession with explorers like Robert Scott of the Antarctic. He's so revered that normal people have no connection to him. I'm trying to do the opposite with my adventures—I'm making them relevant and accessible to people.

CNT: What worries you most about the environment?
De Rothschild: What I call our nature deficiency disorder. Ever since the agricultural revolution, we've seen nature as a commodity we can control. This lulls us into a false sense of security, and then nature rears its head and a tsunami or a hurricane happens and we realize, momentarily, how vulnerable we are, only to return to the "we'll be all right" mentality soon after. We need to understand that the earth's ecosystems are intrinsically linked. It's like a game of Jenga: If you remove one piece—sharks from the ocean, say, which we're fairly near doing—the whole thing will eventually come crashing down.

CNT: What's your view on carbon offsetting?
De Rothschild: You mean carbon off-putting? It salves our conscience, but it doesn't solve the problem. Though if it makes us pause and consider our habits, it's worth doing.