PRIVATE LIVES DAVID de ROTHSCHILD

During the Victorian era, polar explorers held a special place in the British-female imagination. Today, though, with the poles thawing and Mount Everest a tourist destination, being a gentleman adventurer isn't what it once was. Or at least that is the epiphany that struck David de Rothschild when, in 2005, he became the youngest British person to cross Antarctica. "We were stuck in a tent during a storm for two weeks, and my colleagues were telling stories about previous adventures and the records they held, and it dawned on me that being an explorer nowadays is a pretty selfish pursuit," says the 28year-old scion of the banking dynasty. "I wanted to change that."

He created Adventure Ecology, an environmental group whose goal is to use expeditions as a way to teach 9to 12-year-olds about the threats to different eco-systems throughout the world. The launch (or "Mission 1" in Adventure Ecologist-speak) happened last spring when de Rothschild and three fellow adventurers crossed the Arctic Ocean, from Russia to Canada via the North Pole. British and Australian schoolkids followed the team's progress through podcasts while learning about the polar regions with a specially designed classroom curriculum. "There's a point when everyone is young enough to still be fascinated by the natural world: How do trees grow? How do birds fly? So I'm trying to grab that audience before they feel that knowing about the new Nike sneakers is cooler than being into trees, birds, and jungles," he says of his mission to galvanize the next generation of eco-warriors.

The irony of his becoming an educator and an environmentalist is not lost on this child of privilege, who by his own admission was a mediocre student ("the kid in class who was more interested in what's going on outside rather than inside the window"). He credits growing up at the family's country estate—an hour north of London—for his love of all things wild. From the age of three, he was traveling to horse shows with his uncle Peter Robeson, the Olympic equestrian, and he eventually became a member of the Junior British team. In terms of following his father, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, into the bank, he hasn't completely ruled that out—if he could come up with a way of staying green while making green. "We live in a greed-guilt culture where people devote themselves to making shitloads of money and then put on a tux and give shitloads of money to a charity. That's not me," he says. "I think you can create organizations and businesses that can change the world." As for his love life, the last time he wasn't traversing one of the poles, Tatler put him on its mosteligible-bachelor list, ahead of Prince Harry and Hugh Grant. Maybe all those Victorian women were onto something after all.

JOHN BRODIE