diff --git a/activerecord/CHANGELOG b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
index 1d24ee5933..ea9249e24c 100644
--- a/activerecord/CHANGELOG
+++ b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Added Base.default_timezone accessor that determines whether to use Time.local (using :local) or Time.utc (using :utc) when pulling dates 
+  and times from the database. This is set to :local by default.
+
 * Added the possibility for adapters to overwrite add_limit! to implement a different limiting scheme than "LIMIT X" used by MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
 
 * Fixed that the const_missing autoload assumes the requested constant is set by require_association and calls const_get to retrieve it. 
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
index ce10f03789..12f39c6985 100755
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
@@ -221,6 +221,11 @@ module ActiveRecord #:nodoc:
     cattr_accessor :pluralize_table_names
     @@pluralize_table_names = true
 
+    # Determines whether to use Time.local (using :local) or Time.utc (using :utc) when pulling dates and times from the database.
+    # This is set to :local by default.
+    cattr_accessor :default_timezone
+    @@default_timezone = :local
+
     # When turned on (which is default), all associations are included using "load". This mean that any change is instant in cached
     # environments like mod_ruby or FastCGI. When set to false, "require" is used, which is faster but requires server restart to
     # reflect changes.
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_adapter.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_adapter.rb
index 1ca6d59977..454fe98e7f 100755
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_adapter.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract_adapter.rb
@@ -220,21 +220,21 @@ module ActiveRecord
           return string if Time === string
           time_array = ParseDate.parsedate(string).compact
           # treat 0000-00-00 00:00:00 as nil
-          Time.local(*time_array) rescue nil
+          Time.send(Base.default_timezone, *time_array) rescue nil
         end
 
-       def string_to_dummy_time(string)
-         return string if Time === string
-         time_array = ParseDate.parsedate(string)
-         # pad the resulting array with dummy date information
-         time_array[0] = 2000; time_array[1] = 1; time_array[2] = 1;
-         Time.local(*time_array) rescue nil
-       end
-
+        def string_to_dummy_time(string)
+          return string if Time === string
+          time_array = ParseDate.parsedate(string)
+          # pad the resulting array with dummy date information
+          time_array[0] = 2000; time_array[1] = 1; time_array[2] = 1;
+          Time.send(Base.default_timezone, *time_array) rescue nil
+        end
+        
         def extract_limit(sql_type)
           $1.to_i if sql_type =~ /\((.*)\)/
         end
-
+        
         def simplified_type(field_type)
           case field_type
             when /int/i
diff --git a/activerecord/test/base_test.rb b/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
index c2a105f85d..8bbf98555d 100755
--- a/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/base_test.rb
@@ -327,7 +327,16 @@ class BasicsTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal 1, topic.approved
     assert_nil topic.last_read
   end
-  
+
+  def test_utc_as_time_zone
+    Topic.default_timezone = :utc
+    attributes = { "bonus_time" => "5:42:00AM" }
+    topic = Topic.find(1)
+    topic.attributes = attributes
+    assert_equal Time.utc(2000, 1, 1, 5, 42, 0), topic.bonus_time
+    Topic.default_timezone = :local
+  end
+
   def test_default_values_on_empty_strings
     topic = Topic.new
     topic.approved  = nil