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Okay, so the title's a little over the top. But I'm annoyed, and the thin edges of wedges crack my confidence like I wish the sun would pierce the clouds this misty morning.
Tonight we set our clocks forward. Exactly the week I was certainly certain it really was light out when my alarm rang at 6:20 a.m. Exactly the week. Now I'll be getting up in the dark again. The evenings will be nice, but in the morning I'll be getting up, feeling for my clothes, checking the streetlight halos, or the sheen on the road, for rain. Yellow will gleam from a few early neighbours' windows.
Until last year, Daylight Saving Time would kick in on the first Sunday in April, and kick out again the last Sunday in October. It was perfect timing. By the first week of April, the sky would be showing signs of fading into morning at the ungodly hour I would have to get out of bed, and by week's end, there would be visible light inside the house, enough to see my way to the shower, at least.
The timing was perfect in October especially, because suddenly, it seemed, the evenings were dark, just in time for Halloween. The kids, accustomed to light, would get to step out in the dark, swish their feet through leaves under great oaks and maples whose limbs threatened to reach down and snatch up intruders into the realm, the magic realm, of night. Now, however, with the time change a week later, the sky is still light when the smallest of trick-or-treaters venture out, and half the thrill is gone.
The reason for the change in timing? Our friends, the American Bush government, decided it would save energy. Whether it does that is in question. There has been at least one study done that suggests energy use is actually increased with the advent of daylight savings time. (See article.)
Other arguments against the change hint that the Bush decision may have been disingenuous. (Check this out.)
My real concern, however, is that we Canadians had no part in the decision to change. It was typical of American decisions, in that they simply forgot their little neighbour to the north. They forgot that we are joined at the hip, commercially. (Rather like a mole on the butt of the great nation, we are.) The Canadian government heard of the plan and kicked up a fuss, pointed out the problems that would be created if the two countries were on different times for several weeks, everything from problems with cross-border trade and trucking to mis-timed TV shows and lost advertising revenue. Canadians needed some time to prepare, if they were to join the U.S. in the time change. Money speaks, of course, and the U.S. decided to delay the onset of the change so that Canada could be on board.
It's not comfortable living in the shadow of an economic and military giant. We are often made to feel insignificant. The current president's slights on Canada break news and create outrage across our country, the breaking of trade laws costs us billions of dollars. We have little recourse; we're too small.
I worry about resources running out in the U.S. British Columbia has already rescued California when the Golden State has run short on electricity. (Last I heard, we had not been paid for that electricity.) Americans continue to plan to build dams on rivers which originate here and nuclear plants near our borders. When we protest, it's as if they say, "Oh? - there are people other than ourselves to consider?"
We are a country rich in oil reserves, which is an obvious reason to be concerned that the U.S. could simply step in and take them. We are also rich in water resources, while south of the border, there can be shortages. In the presumably coming global warming, what is to stop the U.S. from demanding access to our water? Would we demand payment? Even if we did, could we enforce it? What's to stop the great American machinery from simply moving in and taking over?
We console ourselves with beliefs that they wouldn't, that it wouldn't fly internationally, but the U.S. routinely flouts international law and disdains international institutions when they are not convenient to American interests. If they need our resources, they will take them. I do not feel safe.
Tonight I will set my clock ahead. Monday morning I will wake up in the dark. I would like to have had a voice in this, but the elephant's ears are not attuned to the squeaking of thirty million mice.
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1 comment:
I wondered if it was so early in the USA because of some hitching up with the moveable feast of Easter which has something to do with full moons and stuff, which incidentally I was going to look up this evening, but I read your blogentry first, so well of course...
Here in UK we don't go into British Summer Time until March 30th, the week after Easter. So it will be a bit weird because we are doing a Living History Camp at Easter and darkness will come in about 6.30pm.
I was going to mention about this evening being the first evening I have walked the dog in mostly daylight. Admittedly, I took him out at 6pm but even so,it was pleasure rather than the usual chore. The dog loves the crocusses and daffodils and cavorts among them like he was a gay lamb rather than a proudly butch sheepdog.
It is so frustrating that such decisions as to how we organise traditional things for our own geography and way of life are handed over to bodies like in Canada's case the USA and in our case the EU , neither of which 'we the people' have any influence or voice or real democratic consultations , and are made to feel like slaves in conquered territories. (I suppose Britain probably deserves to know how that feels in a poetic justice sort of way , but Canada doesn't).
I had better shut up now, hadn't I.
Ah but not before I tell you that the dog knows and whimpers one hour before sundown for his walk during summertime. He gets very confused at clock changing. We find our body clocks are attuned to light, not time also. We wake up with the light. It makes such a difference to wake up in the light to the day's SAD level, I think. I have just been starting to feel more positive.
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