NASCAR Tree-Planting Program To Capture Carbon Emissions

NASCAR announced “NASCAR Green Clean Air" – a program to help capture the carbon emissions produced by racing. Under a pilot program that will expand significantly next year, NASCAR will plant ten new trees for each green flag that drops during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events. The tracks participating in the tree-planting program – eleven this year and every venue visited by the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2010 – will mitigate 100% of the carbon emissions produced by the race cars competing in their Sprint Cup Series events. Over time, rolled out across all three national series, NASCAR and its partners will be planting approximately 20 acres of new trees each year. Michigan International Speedway, which is at the forefront of green initiatives, is matching the carbon-capturing planting effort at its track. A tree stores approximately one ton of CO2 over its lifetime, which means that the entire CO2 emissions from a typical race will be offset during this time. NASCAR PR

[Editor's Note: Why doesn't NASCAR try switching from their big pollution emitting carbureted V8 engines (yes, they still use antiquated carburetors – imagine that!) to a more fuel efficient less polluting powerplant for their race cars. Heck it wasn't until 2 years ago that NASCAR finally switched to unleaded fuel. They cannot plant enough trees to come close to making up for the amount of pollution they spew into the atmosphere every year throughout all their racing divisions. We're surprised the EPA doesn't haul them away to court.]