Michael Hampton has announced that the United States of America has just been granted four extra weeks of Daylight Saving Time, beginning in 2007. President George W. Bush signed the bill granting an extra month of DST today, August 8th 2005, in order to lower energy consumption … by forcing Americans to use lights and electric heating during early morning hours, rather than early evening hours. There is, as always, some cause for concern. According to the Associated Press:
Some parents and school officials worry that in mid-March their children will be waiting for school buses in the early morning darkness. Farmers complain the time change adversely affects livestock, especially dairy cows, disrupting milking schedules.
Michael has also mentioned a few valid concerns of his own:
In addition, all computers will need a software update, and many electronic devices with internal clocks will need to be updated or replaced.
Will the extra month of DST and its local effects have a negative impact on global elements, such as world trade and the world economy in general? Only time will tell. With one and half years left before the change, there is at least some hope the we may be prepared before it is upon us.
3 responses
I’m not convinced it will do much of anything really, but it’s worth a try to see if it actually succeeds in reducing energy consumption. It is likely to impact us here in British Columbia as we do so much trading with the western US, specifically California. That said, up here in our little northeastern pocket, we don’t change our clocks, ever!
Wow, I wish I never had to change my clocks. It’s a big problem here in the States. Well, not a huge problem, but whenever we change our clocks, there is always a suspiciously large number of people showing up either one hour late or one hour early to jobs and appointments all across the country.
[…] It’s March 10th of 2007, which means that it’s almost time to try out the newly extended Daylight Savings Time. For most of the United States and Canada, Daylight Savings Time (DST) will be extended by four weeks this year, beginning three weeks earlier at 2AM tomorrow (March 11th) and ending one week later at 2AM on November 4th. Make sure that your computers and PDAs are up to date before midnight to avoid any Y2K7 issues, and turn your clocks ahead one hour before turning in for the night to comfortably remind yourself about the hour of sleep that you’re about to lose. […]