Equatorial 'Don't Worry Be Happy'

As if the picture of Bob Marley on the back of trucks isn't enough, as if the sweltering heat (to this skier) isn't enough, the sheer kick-back, easy-going lifestyle of equatorial living is obvious all over Bali.  Everyone is happy, there are no rules, everyone travel fast, everyone laughs, no one runs into each other, no one lets anyone else in front of them, we all just going to work...

My opinion has always been that the closer one gets to the equator, the most kicked back everything gets.  People are just easier and slower going when the sun is up 12 hours a day each and every day, and the temperature is an even 30C or 80F 24/7/365.  Ok give or take a couple degrees.

I find myself slowing down more every day.  My culture shock is slowly receding.  I am accepting the bee hive buzzing of motorbikes everywhere.  I just can't put up with the belching diesel trucks and ESPECIALLY the tourist buses.  Just yesterday, I walked out of the temple museum where I take my morning walks and meditations, to at least 6 parked large sparkling tourist buses ALL with the engines on.  As I walked through them, I almost choked!  That 5 minutes exceeding my 6 month allotment of carcinogens and aldehydes in the states.  Thank god for strict government smog standards in California!

What's this gotta do with Community Microgrids?  A lot it turns out.  It's EASY to find local, natural resource based energy sources.  It's everywhere.  Everything grows leaps and bounds... unless someone (humans? :-) have stripped the land bare of all trees and branches, not replenished any of the soil, and turned the land into a vast, barren desert... well that's another story.

So the challenge for community microgrids here (and its a BIG one) is on the demand side of the energy equation.  Incandescent and CFL lights are left on 24/7, fans are left running, large refrigerators are everywhere, on and on... it makes us USA energy hogs look downright like energy conservation experts.  On a per capita basis, I would bet that the average expatriate household and middle-class Balinese use way more than the average American's energy tab of 12,000 watts/person/day.
And until that changes, 'appropriate' community microgrids will be difficult to realize.  it's the old adage of taking only what you need, living within your means, and quit squandering the next generations' resources.

But here on Bali, Indonesia... and all around for 1000's of km.. there is an abundance, a richness that is incredible.  The land is blessed, the people are blessed, and of course there's money-grubbing exploitation like I've never seen before.  Large companies and their CEO's just can't grow quick enough to plant palms, extract the oil, and sell it to the west.  See my next blog on a profile of one such company.