Daylight savings time can already be confusing for many, but imagine trying to account for how climate change affects Earth’s rotation and timekeeping. A recent study suggests that global warming might actually delay the need for the first-ever “negative leap second” by three years.
Since 1967, atomic clocks have been used for precise timekeeping, but to maintain a connection with Earth’s rotation, “leap seconds” are occasionally added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). However, Earth’s rotation has been speeding up recently, necessitating the potential introduction of a negative leap second.
Melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica has slowed Earth’s rotation, postponing the need for a negative leap second until at least 2029. This delay is seen as a positive effect of climate change on timekeeping, as it buys time for adjusting timekeeping systems to accommodate potential negative leap seconds.
While some experts are skeptical about the need for a negative leap second anytime soon due to the unpredictability of Earth’s behavior, others believe it’s essential to prepare for such scenarios. There’s also a broader discussion about dropping leap seconds altogether before 2035, with some suggesting it could prevent future disruptions in timekeeping systems.
Source – CGTN