Thursday, February 01, 2007

Daylight savings time changes may be good for the planet

It hasn't been remarked on much in the media, but this year there are daylight savings time changes going into place in both the US and Britain. For us in the US, we'll be switching to DST earlier, and staying on it later. In fact, it's causing quite a bit of work for those of us in information technology: it's a bit like a mini Y2K as far as needing to check all of our systems so our calendars and timestamps and the like works. Although the consequences are not as bad as failing at Y2K might have been.
I know I'll like having more light in the evenings earlier. Living in the Pacific Northwest in the US, it's just now becoming light when we get off work. And that's the idea - it will be light longer sooner, and we may use less electricity to light up dark evenings. That seems to be the logic in the UK as well, where if I read a recent article right, they're going to switch back an hour all year.
No one knows how much it will save yet, and projections vary, but they are all positive.
I know the news is busy talking about the international report on global warming that is due (where the amount of it they're attributing to us humans is being increased, but by less than recommended due to China), but this is better than a report. It's action. And action is what we need.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here we go with another wacky solution to the media hype of global warming. Has anyone died of bird flu in the US this year? The other media hype.
The inconvenient truth is that Al Gore is still hurting over losing the election. Someone in his camp is smart enough to come up with the idea of campaigning on the environment. When OBama and Hilarry have beat the hell out of each other, Al is going to announce and be the "global candidate". VOTE FOR THE WORLD AND ITS FUTURE!
Thanks for the blog to voice the real truth.