Haute 100 Update: David de Rothschild Heads Expedition to Help in the Amazon

Eco-adventurer David de Rothschild’s last expedition took him and his crew across the Pacific Ocean on the Palitski, a sailboat he built made from 12,000 plastic soda bottles to garner awareness of the problem of pollution in our planet’s waters.

Now the famed philanthropist, activist, and heir to the British Rothschild banking family is setting off on his next adventure, which will take him deep into the heart of the Amazon region of Brazil.

De Rothschild will be convening with a portion of his crew that is already situated in the Amazon and will be going to the “Big Bend” area in Northeast Brazil, where there are plans to build the Bello Monte Dam complex.

The dam will create simultaneous dangers of flooding on one side while the other faces risk of drought, in addition to impact on fisheries, groundwater, transport routes, and stagnant water that could introduce water-born diseases into the population.

“There will be around 20,000 people that will be directly displaced by the reservoir and flooding,” said de Rothschild in an interview. “There have been some relocation programs identified by the government, but they really haven’t figured out how they are going to move these indigenous tribes. Still, it’s one of these things where they have no choice.”

Our Haute 100 list details the accomplishments of the most influential people in each of our markets. To see the entire Haute 100 San Francisco list, click here.