Earthhour

Tonight, my family participated in Earth hour along with many others in Earthhour observers in Indianapolis. We turned down all the lights from 8:30-9:30 EST. Although I don't personally find the "stop global warming" movement to have a persuasive logical argument, I do feel that our nation's energy policy needs to be addressed and that individually we should be more conscientious about our profligate use of energy. Also, the lack of light pollution in our neighborhood was wonderful - I wish the sky hadn't been overcast so that we could have seen the stars. The kids have asked if we can do this again next month. We did take a photo of our house during lights out also - check out the sky behind the trees, still lit up by the city light pollution even during earth hour.

I'm also interested to see how energy savings for earthhour compare to daylight saving time - and I'd easily be willing to swap the one for the other. I hate daylight saving time.

Daylight saving nonsense

At 2 a.m. on March 8, 2009, groggy Americans will turn their clocks forward one hour, marking the beginning of Daylight Saving Time (DST). I hate daylight saving time the way that the French hate a loaf of Velveeta.

I find it terribly ironic that only after I moved to Indiana did the state start following DST. And a new study, by Matthew Kotchen and Laura Grant of University of California at Santa Barbara reports that DST increases residential energy use. The article is available at “Does Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Indiana”

Daylight

DST still makes no sense.

I still hate daylight savings time

Again, I wake today afflicted by daylight saving time. The fall DST ending is at least a little less onerous than the spring DST beginning. But I'll still find myself wanting lunch at 10:30 am and having to leave for work in the dark.

DST is basically a collective action motivated by a misplaced and unproven idea that we can save energy by making better use of daylight. In fact, DST is recognized as increasing energy use and costs. A new perspective on my aggravation at DST has emerged this election season as I see how very powerful collective action can be. A motivated group can have tremendous impact towards achieving a shared goal. What a shame that we waste that collective effort on something with so ambiguously beneficial as DST. What if instead we had a national event to "pick up one piece of litter" or "take a 10 minute walk"? We'd probably make a big change towards a cleaner environment or reducing American obesity with that effort - much more of an impact on those issues than we see on our energy use with daylight saving time.

If someone could show me a well-vetted scientific study showing that DST actually did have significant quantifiable benefits, I'd line up and comply without complaint. But as with many lemming-like popular movements, DST has not demonstrated that it has a real, measurable benefit.

I want my $3 back.

I still hate daylight saving time. Although I'm finally starting to adjust, now I can see daylight creeping later and later past my kid's bedtimes. Pretty soon it will be light as late as 10 pm. Grr.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, a new study calculates that Hoosier Households are spending $3 more on energy per year Study: Daylight saving boosts energy use - USATODAY.com. Too bad there is no money back guarantee if satisfaction wasn't assured with the time change -I'd be up at the statehouse asking for my $3 back so I could go get a Latte.

For more info about daylight saving time, check out my previous post I hate daylight savings time, where I reviewed an excellent book on the topic by David Prerau.

Sigh. It seems as though daylight saving time is as phony as... well, a $3 bill.