首页
登录
职称英语
Starting this month, roughly one quarter of the world’s population will lose
Starting this month, roughly one quarter of the world’s population will lose
游客
2023-12-06
45
管理
问题
Starting this month, roughly one quarter of the world’s population will lose sleep and gain sunlight as they set their clocks one hour ahead for daylight saving. People may think that with the time shift, they are conserving electricity otherwise spent on lighting. But recent studies have cast doubt on the energy argument some research has even found that it ultimately leads to greater power use.
Benjamin Franklin is credited with conceiving the idea of daylight saving in 1784 to conserve candles, but the U.S. did not institute it until World War I as a way to preserve resources for the war effort. The first comprehensive study of its effectiveness occurred during the oil crisis of the 1970s, when the U.S. Department of Transportation found that daylight saving trimmed national electricity usage by roughly 1 percent compared with standard time.
Scant research had been done since, during which time U.S. electricity usage patterns have changed as air conditioning and household electronics have become more pervasive, observes economist Matthew Kotchen of the University of California, Santa Barbara. But lately, changes to daylight saving policies on state and federal levels have presented investigators new chances to explore the before-and after impacts of the clock shift.
In 2006 Indiana instituted daylight saving statewide for the first time.(Before then, daylight time confusingly was in effect in just a handful of Indiana’s counties.)Examining electricity usage and billing since the statewide change, Kotchen and his colleague Laura Grant unexpectedly found that daylight time led to a 1 percent overall rise in residential electricity use, costing the state an extra $9 million. Although daylight time reduces demand for household lighting, the researchers suggest that it increased demand for cooling on summer evenings and heating in early spring and late fall mornings. They hope to publish their conclusions this year in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Investigators got another opportunity in 2007, when daylight time nationwide began three weeks earlier, on the second Sunday in March, and ended one week later in the fall. California Energy Commission resource economist Adrienne Kandel and her colleagues discovered that extending daylight time had little to no effect on energy use in the state. The observed drop in energy use of 0.2 percent fell within the statistical margin of error of 1.5 percent.
Not all recent analyses suggest that daylight saving is counterproductive. Instead of studying the impact daylight saving changes had on just one state, senior analyst Jeff Dowd and his colleagues at the U.S. Department of Energy investigated what effect it might have on national energy consumption, looking at 67 electric utilities across the country.
In their October 2008 report to Congress, they conclude that the four-week extension of daylight time saved about 0.5 percent of the nation’s electricity per day, or 1.3 trillion watt-hours in total. That amount could power 100,000 households for a year. The study did not just look at residential electricity use but commercial use as well, Dowd says.
The disparities between regional and national results could reflect climate differences between states. "The effect we saw could be even worse in Florida, where air conditioning is used heavily," Kotchen suggests.
If time shifting turns out to be an energy waster, should the sun set on daylight saving? Certainly that would please farmers, who have long opposed it for how it disrupts their schedules. The chances, though, appear nil. "I’m skeptical we could change daylight saving time on a national level, because we’vem become accustomed to it," Kotchen says, adding that "we might want to consider it for other costs or benefits it could have." Retailers, especially those involved with sports and recreation, have historically argued hardest for extending daylight time. Representatives of the golf industry, for instance, told Congress in 1986 that an extra month of daylight saving was worth up to $400 million annually in extra sales and fees.
So instead of worrying about cranking up the air conditioner at home, think about what more you can do outdoors when the sun is out. Softball, anyone? [br] What is the author’s opinion on daytime saving?
选项
A、He opposes it for it wastes energy instead.
B、He supports it for it saves energy.
C、He is neutral and suggests using less energy.
D、He is indifferent since he can not change it.
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3248546.html
相关试题推荐
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200
Onemajorobstacletoeconomicdevelopmentispopulationgrowth.Thepopulat
Onemajorobstacletoeconomicdevelopmentispopulationgrowth.Thepopulat
Onemajorobstacletoeconomicdevelopmentispopulationgrowth.Thepopulat
Onemajorobstacletoeconomicdevelopmentispopulationgrowth.Thepopulat
Onemajorobstacletoeconomicdevelopmentispopulationgrowth.Thepopulat
Onemajorobstacletoeconomicdevelopmentispopulationgrowth.Thepopulat
随机试题
Oneofthemostimportantfeaturesthatdistinguishesreadingfromlistening
下列关于千步当量描述正确的是()A.一个千步当量等于4km/h中速步行10分
截至2017年初,海南境内共有5A景区()个。A.6 B.7 C.8 D
9个月婴儿,疑似患脑膜炎,已住院。下列中哪一项是本例腰穿的禁忌证A.未被纠正出血
A.首次医疗事故技术鉴定工作 B.再次医疗事故技术鉴定工作 C.申请再次鉴定
若作废操作票含有多页,应在各页操作任务栏内右下角均加盖“作废”章,在作废操作票首
武丁中兴
根据2002年国家认监委发布的《卫生注册需评审HACCP体系的产品目录》,不属于
某车间欲选用一台整流变压器给主回路采用全控三相桥线路的变流装置供电。经计箅整流
飞机机位操作引导灯可能为恒定发()光的灯。A.黄色 B.蓝色 C.红色
最新回复
(
0
)