Eco - Eco Profiles

POSTED: Sunday, Sep. 21, 2008

Profile: Bellingham senior sidesteps high gas prices by converting cars to electric power

Name: Stan Parker.
Age: 64.
Residence: Bellingham.

Occupation: Retired.

Mode of transport: "Walk or ride my bike; on rainy days I take the electric car (a converted Geo Metro)."

Average fuel bill: $30 a month or less.

Eco-cheat: "There are no sacrifices. Being green is fun; I don't live in a cold cave with a candle for light."

Turning point: "I was always like this."

First step: Research on global warming as a graduate student in 1971. "We were gathering baseline data on the (Alaska) environment before the oil pipeline and all the oil fields were put in place. The oil companies were very aware of the problem back then and were funding a large amount of the research. A lot of the graduate students walked away from good-paying jobs (to be part of the project); I was proud to be one of them."

Favorite green Web site: www.seattleeva.org

Pet peeve: None. "If I got peeved I couldn't keep up the good stuff."

Personal eco victory: "I haven't changed in all these years."

Best tip: "The best thing people can do is realize they are part of the world their grandchildren will have to live in."

Stan Parker's passion is converting vehicles — bikes, scooters, cars and even a farm tractor — to electric power. "I never charge any money so I guess you would call it a hobby," he says. "With a bacherlor of science degree in physics and a master's in geophysics, he also works on solar-power projects.

"I recycle, bike, carpool, compost, have a worm bin, pack zero-waste meals, buy local, eat organic, have a farm share," says Parker, a longtime member of the Sierra Club.

His home exemplifies his lifestyle: a 700-square-foot early-1900s cottage with passive solar power and 8 inches of insulation in the walls and floor and 14 inches in the ceiling. "It's a great house with every comfort, there is no sacrifice involved," he says. "I do what I do because I enjoy it, not because I'm cheap or see life through some sort of dark lens.