Changing the Clocks

One of the more insane ideas put forward to help the environment has been that the US should change to daylight savings on a different day from every other country.
Energy-guzzling Americans, always on the lookout for a painless path to conservation, can celebrate this weekend when they will cut greenhouse gas emissions by simply pushing forward the hands on their clocks.

At 2 a.m. Sunday (0700 GMT), the United States will "spring forward" one hour to daylight saving time, three weeks earlier than usual, and will stay on that schedule until November 4, a week longer.

The additional four weeks each year of shifting an hour of daylight from morning to evening is expected to cut fuel consumption, as demand falls for electricity during early evening peak hours, according to experts.

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Farmers will lose a precious hour of early light. Orthodox Jews, who wait until sunrise to say morning prayers, lobbied against the provision, and airliners complained it would throw their international schedules further out of sync with Europe, costing the industry millions of dollars.

Owners of BlackBerrys and other electronic gizmos have had to scurry to download "patches" to make sure their devices are aligned with the new time three weeks earlier than programmed.

It's that last change which puts paid to the idea. Changing each and every international schedule twice a year more than swallows up any benefits there might be.