Final Feature

BOWERS GL OBAL WARMING PROFILE/Luthy

CALIFORNIA MAN LIVES IN GARAGE TO PREVENT GLOBAL WARMING

By Allison Luthy

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—“Can you smell this guy?”

Kalamazoo College students whispered to each other in their Energy and the Environment class as their guest lecturer told them he conserved water by only taking a sponge bath once a week.

Dressed in black track pants and a complimentary orange Kalamazoo College T-shirt, Mr. Bowers’ blue-eyed stare settled on a girl writing a note. As he turned away, she giggled nervously and kept whispering to her friends, this time more quietly.

Ken Bowers, 58, was born and raised in Detroit and graduated Kalamazoo College in the class of ’71. He now resides in a one-car garage in Oakland, Calif. and has a similar residence in Duluth, Minn. Bowers drives between these homes several times a year in his car—a silver 50mpg 1992 Geo Metro XFI—one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the market.

Now retired, Bowers used to work as a building contractor, fixing inner-city properties to make them more efficient.

Bowers decided to pursue a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle while attending school at K College. Up until that point, he was raised in a typical middle-class household where he didn’t think much of energy conservation or consumerism.

Life in the college dormitories helped Bowers realize how easy it was to live in a small space with few belongings. When he graduated from college, he chose to continue living as though he only had the space of a dorm room. This is the principle he still applies to his life 36 years later.

While at college, Bowers also changed his religion to one that better suited his convictions.

“I started out as an Episcopalian—that was what my family was, and that just was not free-thinking enough for me and I switched to Quakerism,” Bowers said. “I am a member of the Kalamazoo Friends Meeting to this day.”

He has noticed that his unusual lifestyle often gets in the way of his social life.

“I find it makes it harder to find friends,” said Bowers. “The friends I do find are really good friends, but it’s much harder to find friends, because I am just out of step with what’s going on in the culture.”

To conserve on energy and water, Bowers uses his sink as the only plumbing in his home and uses it for everything from cooking and doing laundry to taking his weekly sponge bath and using it for all his toilet needs.

“It’s a drastic change from what most Americans are used to,” said Bowers. “Very drastic, but it’s not impossible, I’ve been doing it for years.”

Dr. Michael Tanoff, a professor in Kalamazoo College’s Physics department who teaches the Energy and the Environment classes, approves of Bowers’ straightforwardness. He thinks that Bowers puts his money where his mouth is.

“People are going to have to wake up at some point and realize if you’re going to have a drunken party there’s going to be a hangover,” said Tanoff. “I think Ken will turn some people off but eventually they’ll come to realize that we might all be forced to live his lifestyle anyways.”

Jenna Hertz, leader of Envorg, Kalamazoo College’s environmental student group, also supports Bowers’ choice. She believes that regardless of the outcome of the debate on the real causes of global warming, humans are having a negative effect on the earth and need to find a solution for that.

“I think it’s kind of useless bickering, basically,” said Hertz. “There’s the larger point that we need to take responsibility for our actions, which is something that you learn in kindergarten.”

Dr. Binney Girdler, who teaches in the Kalamazoo College Environmental Studies and Biology departments differs from Hertz in her opinions of Bowers. Girdler feels that Bowers is too extreme for many people to take him seriously, let alone adopt his lifestyle.

“In some ways, it’s almost hyperbole: one went too far to expect the rest of us to follow,” said Girdler.

Girdler does not think Bowers is the best example of how most people can live consciously of the environment, particularly because he doesn’t have a family.

“He can afford to be utterly selfish,” said Girdler. “It’s an interesting combination of being completely selfish, yet for global reasons.”

Lauren Migliore, the president of the Kalamazoo College Republicans, looks at the problem from a more conservative viewpoint.

“ I think that while his heart is in the right place, that is excessive and definitely crazy,” said Migliore.

Andy Lukas, the vice-president of Kalamazoo College Republicans, also feels that the issue of global warming is being blown out of proportion.

“I think this is something that has been concocted out of biased studies or taken from inaccurate studies and that it’s something that needs to be looked at, but needs to be looked at more seriously, in that we shouldn’t just jump to the first conclusion,” Lukas said. “I think everybody’s just jumping on the bandwagon because it’s the latest and greatest fad for the left.”

Similarly, he does not believe that the level Bowers wants others to practice energy conservation at is practical or entirely necessary.

“You have to admire the man for his convictions and he’s certainly doing more than his part to deter this consumption of natural resources, but I think that’s going a little too far, and to expect other people to do it as well is a little ridiculous, but if people want to act that way, it’s fine,” said Lukas, “That’s their choice.”

In spite of opposition from others, Bowers continues with practicing his simple lifestyle and encourages others to do the same.

“Just try to be in touch with your mind, your spirit, and your body. Try to move away from this commercially induced lust for ever-increasing material stuff in your life,” Bowers said. “‘Cause that’s just a ball and chain.”

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