The New Daylight Saving Time

In seemingly the ultimate cross promotion, this weekend is both the unveiling of the new Daylight Saving Time and the cable premiere of An Inconvenient Truth.

Starting this weekend Daylight Saving Time will start the second Sunday of March (previously the first Sunday of April) and end the first Sunday of November (previously the last Sunday of October). According to ZDnet's research, "the argument for changing DST is very clear. The return is that folks will have more daylight and therefore use less power. Hard figures, however, are hard to come by. The Department of Energy has said that by extending DST by two months reduced energy consumption by the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil each day. At $60 a barrel those barrels equate to $6 million in savings each day DST is extended, or roughly $360 million." But I have also seen it stated that we will only save about 10,000 barrels of oil each day, which is just a little different from 100,000. There will be an energy consumption study conducted, so we will get to see just how much of a difference it makes.
I am psyched that next week it will still be light out at 7, but if it can also accomplish one of the 3 R's, I am very happy.

The 3 R's you ask? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. In Jack Johnson's reinterpretation of the Schoolhouse Rock classic "Three is a magic number"(Check out the Blind Melon version) he adds a message for the environment. I love the fact that he is using a song most people already recognize to encourage kids to make a change and make a difference. If we had this version back in the day, we would not only know our multiplication table for 3, but we may be much better off environmentally. If you happen to be in Hawaii April 21st or 22nd you can support Jack's efforts and check out the Kokua Festival which supports environmental education programs in Hawaii. There will be a special about the festival on the National Geographic Channel starting April 1st, and the concert itself will stream on myspace.

I read that you are supposed to check your fire detector battery everytime you change your clocks(I don't check my detector battery, I just wait for that pleasing beep when the battery is almost dead). The California Energy Commission recommends taking that one step further, when you change your clock, why not change a bulb. Did you know that "If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars." Check this calculator out for a demonstration of what you can save in your house.
Wondering what else can you do? Here is a list of things you can do to reduce your global warming emissions.