Me and the cows are opting out

Here we go again.

at particularly unfunny chap who ddles with national standard time twice a year has just had his jollies again. When many of us were enjoying a deep, probably drink induced, night’s sleep early Sunday, April 2, the Time Lord slipped into his magic blue time box machine and took us on another extraterrestrial hour long trip.

Next morning, I watched the cows yawn as they pondered whether clocks had moved forward or backward and whether they should make a move towards the herringbone. Or perhaps they should have been there an hour ago.

See – it’s a mess.

I tried to explain to them there would be a schedule adjustment to meet the milk truck pick up. But they just stared me all doe-eyed and disinterested.

I blame that busy-body pom William Willett who rst proposed daylight saving time away back in 1907.

Taking advantage

“A way to take full advantage of the day’s light,” he said. Why did we buy into that?

I have never even tried to gure daylight saving time (DST) because what William Willett started, Mr iPhone now does it for me. Does it automatically. DST might motivate a few ‘urbans’, the townies, to get some added outdoor recreation, an evening run, an extra nine holes, or an espresso martini on e Strand. But as a person of the soil, my circadium rhythms are now all to hell and my days screwed. I don’t need DST nor do I want it.

I have also never gured how DST saves anything –let alone daylight.

Doesn’t DST simply change the time on clocks when the sun rises and sets. It doesn’t create or save anything. When DST was foist upon us it was argued more daylight meant less use of arti cial light and consequently more energy savings. However, modern society with its penchant for 55, 60 and 65 inch televisions, computers and air conditioning would have sucked any skerrick of life out of that argument. In fact, in Indiana when they introduced DST in 2006, a study found energy use actually increased.

Possible side e ects

DST has been around for a 100 years in various parts. And I feel like we have been grumbling about it for as long. But it was pointless grumble, and any of the time I am meant to have saved has been wasted.

ere’s also all the hocus-pocus “evidence” for and against DST. Studies link lack of sleep at the beginning of the day to car accidents, workplace injuries, suicide and miscarriages. e early evening darkness at the end of DST is linked to depression. I am getting glum just processing all the nonsense. e risk of heart attack is also increased when DST begins. However the extra hour of sleep we get at the end of the DST has in turn been linked to fewer heart attacks.

Safety is apparently a ‘solid argument’ for keeping lighter evenings. DST improved road safety by reducing pedestrian fatalities 13 percent during dawn and dusk hours. And another study showed a seven percent decrease in robberies following the spring shift to DST. Tell that to the ram raiders. ere’s also a reported decrease in productivity after the spring transition. I feel some post DST lethargy coming on as well.

Interesting that in the USA states can opt out of DST. It’s the same in Queensland. Do you think the rest of the country would notice if New Zealand farmers, and their cows, arbitrarily opted out of DST too?

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