Does turning the clocks back damage the environment?
By admin on Oct 26, 2007 in Featured, Environment, News, Home & Garden, Energy
Winter is upon us and it is that time of year again when we have to turn the clocks back an hour. An extra hour in bed is also welcome, but is the British tradition of turning the clocks back each winter causing further damage to the environment? According to a study by Cambridge University engineers, turning the clocks back does cause a surge in the countries CO2 emissions.
The study found that households use an extra 5% electricity due to the darker evenings. This generates millions of tonnes of excess carbon dioxide, and adds millions of pounds to the nations power bills.
The author of the report, Elizabeth Garnsey, said:
“Setting the clocks back to GMT is an institutional practice so well entrenched it is exempt from evidence-based policy making. No systematic evidence has been produced and no research commissioned in support of the government’s position.”
As well as reducing carbon emissions, the report also suggests that remaining on BST all year could prevent around 104 deaths and 450 serious injuries on the roads each year by decreasing the amount of driving in the dark. As a direct result of this, the NHS would also save money.
The main factor in the surge in energy consumption caused by turning back the clocks is that around 35% of the population are still asleep when the sun rises during the winter months, therefore these people make no use of the extra daylight. As it is dark and cold when people return from work or school, more lighting and heating is used, especially between 4-6pm.
The debate on whether or not to continue to turn back the clocks is one that has been ongoing for many years. An experiment was carried out between 1968-71 in which Britain brought the clocks forward by an hour. The experiment was abandoned after evidence showed that there was an increase in morning road accidents involving school children. The new report suggests that this evidence was misleading as it did not take into account that these accidents were more than offset by the much greater fall in accidents in the evenings.
Jason | Oct 27, 2007 | Reply
Something I never really though about. Pretty informative article, will look into trying to use the lights less