Race car driver & activist
Visit Leilani's website
Leilani Münter is a professional race car driver and environmental activist.
Leilani races in the ARCA Series, a development league of NASCAR, and is the fourth woman in history to race in the Indy Pro Series, the development league of IndyCar. Since 2007, Leilani has been adopting an acre of rainforest for every race she runs. In 2008 she became politically active in the legislative fight for the environment, making several visits to Capitol Hill to speak with members of Congress on behalf of clean energy legislation.
Discovery's Planet Green named Leilani the #1 Eco Athlete in the world, beating Lance Armstrong for the top spot. Her racing accomplishments have landed her on the pages of USA Today, Italian Vogue, Glamour, The New York Times, Reader's Digest, Esquire and Sports Illustrated named her one of the top ten female race car drivers in the world.
Leilani's motto is "Never underestimate a vegetarian hippie chick with a race car." She documents her efforts to go green on her eco site carbonfreegirl.com.
Here a recent story Leilani wrote from Taiji Cove in Japan...
The Sadness and Beauty of Taiji
by Leilani Münter 
on 09.21.11
Photo credit: Leilani Munter
I am happy to report another day of peace at the cove. No blood was shed in these waters today. In fact, since Sept 7, the day they slaughtered the first pod of Risso's dolphins - there has been no killing. They did capture of a large pod of bottlenose a few days ago, but they pulled one dolphin out for captivity and set the rest of the pod free. But the lack of killing around here is not for a lack of trying, the dolphin hunters have been going out every day except one when the weather would not allow it. They have been chasing pods each day, but day after day, the pods have either escaped or they have been unable to locate a pod at all.
I have settled into a routine here. Every morning my alarm goes off at 430am, I brush my teeth, grab a coffee, put my hair in a ponytail and I'm out the door by 445am. I meet the dolphin hunters at the Taiji Harbor at 5am. I use the word "meet" loosely. I sit in my rental car in a parking lot across the dock from the Taiji Fishermen's Union and watch from afar as they have their morning meeting filled with cigarettes before they set out to sea in their boats to search for dolphins.
The police meet me there every day as well. They know me quite well by now, as I do them. I even know one particular English speaking policemen's shift schedule. And they know my schedule as well. That's when you know you've spent some serious time in Taiji. One of the most amusing moments of this trip was when the police pulled me over for the first time (for not using my blinker) and as they walked away said "Welcome back." That's when you know you are a regular in Taiji! We are even starting to have deeper conversations with each other, thanks to their good English (I'm working on my Japanese). A couple days ago, one of the policemen asked me, "Do you fight for other animals, or just dolphins?" so when I got back to my hotel, I made this video:
For the rest of the story go to http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/09/the-sadness-and-beauty-of-taiji.php
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