NASCAR plants trees to make up for emissions

An organization dedicated to driving cars with giant engines around a track for hours seems like an unlikely ally in the war against pollution, but NASCAR is taking the boot to its carbon footprint.

The NASCAR Race To Green and NASCAR Clean Air Tree Planting programs are designed to raise awareness for the environment and its protection as well as encourage people to plant trees and to become their stewards.

A single NASCAR Sprint Cup driving car will emit approximately one metric ton of carbon dioxide every 500 miles, which is how much a single mature tree can absorb in its life time. The goal of the tree planting program is to plant enough trees to offset the carbon dioxide emission of every car in the organization’s three national series.

Working with the Arbor Day Foundation and UPS, more than 8,000 trees will be planted, including 90 in each of the markets where there is a NASCAR Spring Cup series event. People can also visit NASCAR's website and donate $1 to help buy a 2-3 foot sapling.

While I applaud the efforts of NASCAR for trying to offset its years of noxious fume-belching car pollution by planting trees, it’s too little, too late. The organization has been a major source of air pollution for decades and planting a few young trees that will take years to grow to maturity isn't actually going to offset anything.

It’s nice that they’ll be using a Camry hybrid as a pace car, but that’s a single car. If they really wanted to Race To Green, they’d sponsor a contest to develop the most environmentally friendly race car engine. The whole program seems more like a publicity stunt than anything else, but I guess it’s at least something.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons