Saturday, October 22, 2005

Worst case Ontario :)

I don't like this one bit! Beginning 2007, Ontario will synch-up with the proposed American Daylight Savings scheme: daylight time will begin on the second Sunday of March and end on the first Sunday in November. I don't know if I can deal :(

Aside from synching up our trade with the states, I'm not convinced that this'll make a speck of difference in terms of energy-conservation. Listen to CBC's Andrew Nichols interview with Michael Downing, author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving" (Real Player). Downing contends that 100 years of history has taught us that we won't save any energy with DST. As we get into November (or backwards into lousy sMarch), our sunrises are going to be no earlier than 7:30, and even as late as 8:30; we will have kids going to school in the dark. I don't totally get this but Downing also discussed how retailers have learned to rig DST: he said that Dept. stores figured out that more sunlight at the end of the day will get us out to spend money and that the Petroleum industry knows we'll go into our cars and shop more. More convincingly, Downing said that this new scheme is just a rehash of a Nixon proposal from the OPEC oil embargo days. Mornings were too unpleasant and, since most of us don't use oil for home heating/electricity, it didn't really save anything. But politicians like DST because it doesn't cost anything or require sacrifice/conservation.

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