Your Choice of Site Generator Hire Could Change Time Itself
Date: 15/04/24
Many of the effects of global warming are well documented. Rising temperatures have caused fundamental changes to a range of environments, from the bleaching coral reefs in Australia to the creation of creeping deserts in China. Even our own weather seems wetter and more erratic with every passing year.
But now scientists have found evidence that climate change may be changing time itself, causing major problems with the world’s computers. And your choice of site generator hire could be contributing to the problem!
What is happening?
Climate change is leading to a rapid melting of polar ice. In just thirty years since 1992, a colossal 7560 billion tonnes of ice have been lost from Greenland and Antarctica – that’s 7,560,000,000,000,000kg of ice – which is around the same number of litres of water.
Globally, this meltwater has created a rise in sea level of 21mm. This is effectively slowing down the rotation of the planet in much the same way as an ice skater slows down a spin by putting out their arms.
The rate of the earth’s spin changes all the time for all kinds of natural reasons, including tides and the spin of the earth’s molten core. However, this is the first time a man-made cause has been identified. By burning fossil fuels and creating emissions, “we've done something that measurably changes how fast the Earth rotates,” says Duncan Agnew, the author of a study published in Nature called How Climate Change is Affecting Global Timekeeping.
What difference will it make?
Most of us will never notice the very small slowing of time that comes from climate change, but it could have a big effect on the global time used to coordinate our computer systems. Even a thousandth of a second disparity could cause significant disruption to communications between systems.
Global time, known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), has to be adjusted with leap seconds as the earth speeds up or slows down to ensure UTC matches the actual time it takes the earth to make one full rotation. 27 leap seconds have been added since the 1970s.
Now, for the first time, scientists are having to factor in the effects of climate change and meltwater into their calculations, The more ice that melts, the more complex and unpredictable these calculations become. “Things are happening that are unprecedented,” says Agnew. “We can actually see that the earth’s rotation has been affected by the melting of polar ice.”
Changing time shows us that it’s time for a change.
It’s easy to think of global warming as a global problem, and one that is on a scale far beyond the reach of our day to day activities. However, it’s exactly those day to day activities that are fuelling climate change, and so it’s up to all of us to make changes to those activities, however small, wherever we can.
Think Hire can help you to make those changes right now with a range of renewable energy equipment, including solar site generator hire and hybrid site generator hire. Using renewable energy significantly decreases the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses from your site that cause global warming. Better still, it also decreases your operating costs too.
Decarbonising your site and moving to renewable energy by switching to solar site generator hire is not only essential for our future, but it could actually affect when that future arrives.
“Global warming is affecting global timekeeping,” concludes Agnew’s report. This means there’s never been a more important time to contact Think Hire about solar site generator hire. Because when it comes to UTC, literally every second counts!
Download the Think Hire Brochure
We have over 60 years combined experience in the design, manufacture, hire and sale of innovative products, with an environmentally considerate power supply.