It’s a bit schizophrenic. Leilani Münter is a race car driver… and an eco-activist. She’s obsessed with hurtling ‘round and ‘round a race track … and saving dolphins from slaughter. You could imagine a wispy white angel perched on her one shoulder, and a small fiery devil on the other. How can someone whose livelihood involves burning 1.3 miles per gallon, call themselves an environmentalist?
It’s a strange dichotomy, but not absurd: are there any of us who live 100-percent sustainable lives? And although Münter recognizes how Indy or NASCAR racing is “not an eco-friendly sport,” she also has a mission and a killer strategy on how to use her oversized carbon footprint to save the world.
“I have a passion for racing, as well as protecting our planet. I am committed to using this vehicle to introduce the millions of racing fans to the message of sustainable living.” With auto racing the leading spectator sport in the world; and second only to NFL football in televised sports (broadcast in over 150 countries), a race car is a phenomenal platform for revving up a hard-to-reach audience.
“In that contradiction lies the opportunity: to reach some 75-million individuals who are avid racing fans,” explained Thomas H. Rawls, Vice President of NativeEnergy (one of the top ranked carbon offset provider in North America). “My guess is that a fair share of them are not troubling themselves about global warming. Those 75-million fellow inhabitants of our planet present a rich vein of possibility we want to explore.”
Well before Münter became one of the top female stock car racers in the United States, she was studying biology and the environment at the University of California in San Diego. A professed vegetarian who calls herself Carbon Free Girl, she says her science background led her into activism. Among her goals: to convince auto racing execs to develop more fuel efficient engines, and eco-friendly venues – even something as simple as promoting the recycling of bottles and cans; and to get sponsors to switch out old light bulbs for energy-efficient LED lighting. Already, Münter adopts an acre of rainforest each time she races, to offset her carbon footprint.
When Münter visited Capitol Hill to talk with members of Congress on how to reduce greenhouse emissions, Clean Air Watch President Frank O’Donnell said, “It shows that it’s not just climate scientists or greenie-weenies … who want to do something about global warming. It’s bread-and-butter Americans who are saying we have got to get on the stick.”
Communing with only like-minded people is a bit of the proverbial ‘preaching to the choir.’ Sometimes, in order to step-forward, you need to step out of your familiar, friendly territory.
“If we only address those we already agree with us, nothing changes,” Rawls chides, on the NativeEnergy blog “If we work only with people who already believe in what we do, who is going to change the minds of those who don’t?”
For more on Leilani Münter, visit www.leilaniMünter.com.
