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  • 2007-04-23 (xsd:date)
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  • Does Daylight Saving Time Exacerbate Global Warming? (en)
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  • Since the first implementation of Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United State during World War I, jokes have abounded about people who mistakenly believed the springtime adjustment of clocks somehow created an extra hour of daylight (when all it did was shift the time of day that daylight hours occurred) or that it had a deleterious effect on crops and farm animals (who are oblivious to humans' methods of keeping time). Now that stock of humor has been increased with the additional claim that the lengthened Daylight Saving Time period which was implemented in 2007 (when DST began three weeks earlier than in previous years and stayed in effect for an additional week longer in the fall) contributed to record high temperatures recorded across the U.S. in the late winter and early spring by producing a daily extra hour of warming daylight. One such item quoted above was indeed published as a letter to the editor by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on 16 April 2007: However, this missive was not intended to be taken literally, as its author, Connie Meskimen, is a Little Rock lawyer known for penning sarcastic letters with tongue planted firmly in cheek, such as the following: Nonetheless, Connie Meskimen's controversial Daylight Saving missive prompted a number of responses from Democrat-Gazette readers, ranging from expressions of incredulity that such a letter could have been written (let alone published) to hopes that it was all meant as a joke: Evidently Mr. Meskimen received a number of direct inquiries about his bit of satire, as afterwards the voicemail at his office phone presented callers with the following message: If you are calling about the Daylight Savings Time letter and wish to explain global warming or daylight savings time to me, I would urge you to get a sense of humor and/or a life, in that order. Unless, of course, you want to pay me for an interview; if so, please leave your telephone number and I will expediently return your call. A few sharp-eyed readers pointed out that another tongue-in-cheek letter similar to Mr. Meskimen's had appeared in the Aspen Times a month earlier: (en)
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