Daylight saving Time

Daylight saving time is often incorrectly referred to as “Daylight savings time.” It is difficult to imagine why some still follow this political tradition of messing with our clocks in the vain attempt to change Mother Nature. Nonetheless, this Sunday, March 9, 2014 is the day in the US most move our clocks forward one hour (and also to change the batteries on smoke detectors), while some are not required to change their clocks.

United States Congress established the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that stated DST would begin on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. The US Congress extended DST to a period of ten months in 1974, and back to eight months in 1975. The DST schedule period lasted for about seven months from 1987 to 2006. The current schedule began in 2007 and follows the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which extended the period by about one month where DST starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

Interesting that the vast majority, well over one hundred countries, do not change clocks for DST or any other reason. Those that do observe it have different days, ranging from Mar 9 to April 6, and September in New Zealand, Antarctica, and Namibia. Some of Australia changes on October 5, with other parts of Australia not changing their clocks.

Pro - According to a 2004 Japan Productivity Centre (sic) for Socio-Economic Development report titled, 'Summer Time as a Means to Lifestyle Structural Reform', "lighter evenings could, in the long-term, reduce bag theft by up to 10 percent."

Con - The California Energy Commission published a report, 'The Effect of Early Daylight Saving Time on California Electricity Consumption: A Statistical Analysis'. According to the report, the extension of daylight saving time in March 2007 had little or no effect on energy consumption in California.

No studies have been conducted to prove the heated rhetoric caused by DST discussions that could possibly increase global warming by .1658%

Wise words indeed!