The Politics of Time
Okay, so I'm probably making too much out of this.
It bugs the living crap out of me that almost every province across the country, has changed their laws, to accommodate the American "Energy Policy Act [2005]" By moving the dates that Daylight Savings Time is changed.
Now, I'm sure a lot of my concern, is fuelled out of knee jerk nationalism, and anti-americanism, but, I'm beginning to think that this changeover just isn't designed for a northern latitude.
I mean, up here in Edmonton, the days have just gotten long enough for my morning commute to happen in daylight hours. it's a bit of a kick in the teeth, that all that pent up spring energy that I've been rolling with, will be for not. It's not going to be complete darkness here either, but I find it somewhat comforting to wake up at sunrise, not before it.
I'm sure that this is compounded in the far north.
on March 10, the day before the changeover, our colonial masters in Houston will have the sunrise at 6:38 am. at that latitude the changeover makes sense. a solid half hour of light, is generally going to waste. Meanwhile, up in Yellowknife, the Sun will rise at 7:12. Which means, that even before the changeover, people would have been getting up and driving to work before the sunrise.
Another issue, would be the difference in Surface temperature in that hour.
In Alberta, there's a pretty sharp difference between daytime and nighttime temperature, and if people are up and moving, that means that the car heaters will have to compensate, by heating more. again, in houston, the nighttime/daytime temperature, is reasonably stable, and at this time of year, they probably won't use either heating or AC. it's not uncommon to wake up in the middle of march to -20 here.
I'm sure that our legislators, had the best of intentions by following the lead of the Americans. After all, they will save a bunch of energy. However, we may very well wind up using more energy, as we turn on all our lights when we wake up to get ready for work.
It bugs the living crap out of me that almost every province across the country, has changed their laws, to accommodate the American "Energy Policy Act [2005]" By moving the dates that Daylight Savings Time is changed.
Now, I'm sure a lot of my concern, is fuelled out of knee jerk nationalism, and anti-americanism, but, I'm beginning to think that this changeover just isn't designed for a northern latitude.
I mean, up here in Edmonton, the days have just gotten long enough for my morning commute to happen in daylight hours. it's a bit of a kick in the teeth, that all that pent up spring energy that I've been rolling with, will be for not. It's not going to be complete darkness here either, but I find it somewhat comforting to wake up at sunrise, not before it.
I'm sure that this is compounded in the far north.
on March 10, the day before the changeover, our colonial masters in Houston will have the sunrise at 6:38 am. at that latitude the changeover makes sense. a solid half hour of light, is generally going to waste. Meanwhile, up in Yellowknife, the Sun will rise at 7:12. Which means, that even before the changeover, people would have been getting up and driving to work before the sunrise.
Another issue, would be the difference in Surface temperature in that hour.
In Alberta, there's a pretty sharp difference between daytime and nighttime temperature, and if people are up and moving, that means that the car heaters will have to compensate, by heating more. again, in houston, the nighttime/daytime temperature, is reasonably stable, and at this time of year, they probably won't use either heating or AC. it's not uncommon to wake up in the middle of march to -20 here.
I'm sure that our legislators, had the best of intentions by following the lead of the Americans. After all, they will save a bunch of energy. However, we may very well wind up using more energy, as we turn on all our lights when we wake up to get ready for work.