Preparing for the DST Crisis: Heading for the HIlls
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 6.07
Whenever Humankind tampers with the natural order of things, stuff happens. In spite of the risk, the American government has decided to move the start of Daylight Savings Time three weeks forward to March 11 to save energy, and Canada and Bermuda have followed. Yet computers controlling everything from nuclear plants to air traffic control to TreeHugger are running on code that was written in the last century- can it cope?
Just in case, TreeHugger looks at the things you should (and shouldn't) have when the lights go out.
For heading to the hills in a hurry, you can fill your Voltaic backpack with a wind-up charger for nights or living in caves. For water, small units like the Lifestraw may be useful. Don't forget a Fire-fly stove but for quick energy when on the run, nothing beats a Clif Bar. An eco-camp kit might be useful, although a solar powered tent might be a bit heavy. A Bikamper Bike tent might be a better choice. Load it onto a good solid Jorg and Olif and you are on your way ahead of the crowds. You can add a bike trailer if you need more stuff.
Don't forget warm clothes like organic alpine sweaters, hemp jackets and eco-fleece hoodies. And, of course, a sleeping bag.
To keep on top of what is happening, take a Freeplay Radio or Sony's hand-cranked version.
Don't forget to read up about food foraging and Michael Pollan has a lot to teach about hunting in the Omnivore's Dilemma. With luck, you will last until Halloween when the clocks move back to where they are supposed to be.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Doubting Renewable Energy
- Unilever Cutting Ink Colors to Save Millions and Reduce Waste
- How to Stuff a Stocking with Renewable Energy
- Run Cars on Green Electricity, Not Natural Gas
I thought Treehugger.com would be happy with the newer DST. I thought it was part of an initiative to cut energy use?
This is idiotic. DST is not a "natural phenomenon". Most important computer systems can run on any time setting you pick- say, GMT, for instance. Yet another excuse for alarmist product placement by the consumerist Treehugger.
Do you work in the IT field? I do - and this change is raising a lot of issues. We are shifting to GMT, but not all software is designed to handle that gracefully. I suggest you get some background before calling something idiotic.
Well they cried Wolf back in 1999 over Y2K and that blew over. My guess, Its just another fake scare news story. Course, I don't work in IT. More of a gut feeling and shooting from the hips on this one.
Actually, they didn't cry wolf. They were right. The reason why not much happened is BECAUSE they were taken seriously and huge measures were taken to avoid the problem.
For example, if we were to succeed in stopping global warming (somehow), would it be reasonable for people to say that we "cried wolf" before because global warming isn't a problem? Of course not! the problem was fixed, but it was real.
The whole Y2K thing was over before it got out. By the time the media got all excited, things were pretty much solved. A close relative of mine, a computer sciences engineer for a IT troubleshooting company was severely overworked in the months leading up to 2000. He said by the time it came the odds of anything more than some internet servers going down was virtually nil.
More on topic, if the world actually descended into chaos and darkness (think Asimov's "nightfall"), all that stuff wouldn't be worth their weight. You couldn't last a week, let alone 6 months.
And yes lloyd, i realize this is just an excuse to dig up old posts.
"The whole Y2K thing was over before it got out."
The lesson we, as concerned environmentalists, should take from this is not to let the same thing happen to the whole Global Warming / Climate Change flap. It's up to all of us to keep the excitement at a fever pitch.
For me, the dubious part is that is will only save 100,000 barrels of oil. Witht he US using 20 million barrels a day, there are better ways to save our oil.
http://ecoiron.blogspot.com/2007/02/we-can-change-time-how-about-tune.html
I don't see why this should cause so much concern. There are places, even in America, where DST is not recognized. Their computers work.