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Do we still need daylight saving time?
Why everyone from the candy lobby to TV networks is weighing in on the daylight saving time debate.
Wed, Oct 19 2011 at 10:50 AM
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Photo: Mike Warot/Flickr
For nearly a century, Americans have been springing forward and falling back, and this year will be no different. Come Sunday morning, we'll all be snuggled soundly in bed when the clock changes an hour. Daylight saving time is the seasonal surprise that borrows an hour from our circadian rhythm in the spring and gives it back in the fall. (This year, you'll need to adjust your clocks on Sunday, Nov. 6 and Sunday, March 11.)
But whether or not we should disrupt the rhythm at all has spurred passionate debate from many disparate groups.
To better understand the situation, it's best to look at why we do these annual clock changes. Agrarian cultures built their societies around sunlight, waking up with the sun to toil in the field and heading home as the sun lowered beneath the horizon. But the industrial revolution brought with it the freedom to unshackle us from nature's clock.
As long ago as 1897, countries around the world began instituting daylight saving time, adding an hour of sunlight to the afternoon. This meant communities could be more productive — people could work longer, and when work was done it was still bright enough to run errands and stimulate the economy. The added daylight also meant more exposure to Vitamin D and the added time for people to exercise outdoors.
Everyone from factory owners to retailers embraced the change. Even the candy lobby supported the new system, figuring the extra hour of sunlight meant it would be safer for kids to go trick-or-treating on Halloween.
"It has several technical benefits as well," Dr. David Prerau, author of "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time," explained during a phone interview. "It's been found to reduce energy usage by doing something called load smoothing" — separating out electrical loads throughout the day to better deal with the valleys and peaks of energy usage — "and so you're going to generate energy more efficiently and therefore have less effects on pollution." A study by the U.S. Department of Transportation showed that the country's electricity usage is cut by 1 percent each day because of daylight saving time.
But not everyone is on board with the time shift.
Michael Downing, a teacher at Tufts University and the author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time," says messing with the clock doesn't really save energy. "Daylight saving is still a boon to purveyors of barbecue grills, sports and recreation equipment and the petroleum industry, as gasoline consumption increases every time we increase the length of the daylight saving period," Downing tells MNN. "Give Americans an extra hour of after-dinner daylight, and they will go to the ballpark or the mall — but they won't walk there."
Daylight saving time increases gasoline consumption, according to Downing. "It is a convenient and cynical substitute for a real energy conservation policy."
There's data to back him up. A report by the California Energy Commission's Demand Analysis Office concluded that, "The extension of daylight saving time (DST) to March 2007 had little or no effect on energy consumption in California."
Television networks aren't fans of the time change either. The extra hour of daylight means fewer people are home to watch TV. Viewership ratings traditionally plunge each spring. In 2009, Fox's hit "American Idol" clocked in historic low ratings immediately following the spring time change. On average, primetime shows shed 10 percent of their viewers on the Monday after the clocks are changed.
"I think television networks would like it to be dark as soon as you left the office and headed home for the night," Bill Gorman, of the website TV by the Numbers, told NPR. "And maybe it started raining or snowing a lot as soon as primetime began."
And it doesn't look like those issues will end anytime soon. As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Congress pushed daylight saving time three to four weeks deeper into the fall.
That change has resulted in sunrises as late as 8:30 a.m. in some areas, causing ripple effects in unexpected places. For example, it has thrown a wrench into the lifestyle of observant Jews whose morning synagogue services are predicated on the sun. In fact, Prerau points out, Israel has a relatively short daylight saving time compared to other countries. "If sunrise is late, religious Jews have to delay going to work or pray at work, neither of which is a desirable situation," he says.
"If you don't like daylight saving time, you have plenty of options," explains A.J. Jacobs, the best-selling author of "The Know-It-All." He suggests moving to Arizona or Hawaii, states that don't observe daylight saving time at all. "Parts of Indiana used to be DST-resistant as well, but I think they've since buckled."
Even for those who do live in such states, it's not all easy living. "It's crazy. People forget about us not changing so they call at ridiculous times," says Anita Atwell Seate, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "But on the upside, you don't have to adjust your sleep schedule or your clocks."
Is daylight saving time a fait accompli or will time ever just stand still? Downing doesn't see a light at the end of the tunnel. "Since 1966, every 20 years, Congress has given us another month of daylight saving. We're up to eight months now," he says. "And there is every reason to believe that the [U.S.] Chamber of Commerce, the national lobby for convenience stores — which account for more than 80 percent of all gasoline sales in the country — and Congress will continue to press for extensions until we adopt year-round daylight saving. And then, why not spring forward in March or April and enjoy double daylight saving time?"
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It's causing massive depression in people and should be seriously looked at from a medical or pyschological perspective. It sounds like most of the rationale is based on money... that can"t be right.
Daylight Savings is like cutting 12" off a blanket and sewing it on the other end and then expecting a longer blanket
I don't necessarily mind this time change but loathe it in the spring...I think we would do better to stay the same the year round....
You know. I am not afraid if they will decide to stay on DST all year-round. (Perhaps I'll even be happy if sunset on winter will be not too early). What I am really afraid-if they will decide to stay on standard time all year! Because it will be really unbearable for me.(In case if sunset will be at 8 p.m. on summer and especially sunrise around 4 a.m.) I think it's unacceptable. I don't mind to stop moving clocks- back-forward, but in this case please stay on DST all year!
I have seasonal depression. Coming home in the dark at 5:00 pm in the winter really hurts me. I want daylight savings time all year long, Every yr.
When we change the clocks back in the fall, I drive to work in the dark and drive home in the dark. When I am home the lights are all on. I save nothing
Like anything else the best way to resolve this is a compromise, split the difference. Just fall back 1/2 hr and leave it alone, for good. That way its only 30 min. either way.
leave this summer daylight saving time forever !!! don't change your clock in November!!! it's will'be dark at 5pm as dark at 9pm on summer time even darker! be smart dont put your life on stress!!!
let's keep it forever!!! do vote !!!
Bravo!!! smart!!!
Surely yes! I can't live normally without dst! Actually i don't mind to stay on dst all year, but to cancel DST-it's unacceptable!!!
Just imagine what will be in the summer? I don't need darkness at 8 p.m. and sunrise in the middle of the night. If you don't like changing clocks ahead-backward-leave dst all year-round. But don't cancel dst!!!
(The added daylight also meant more exposure to Vitamin D and the added time for people to exercise outdoors.)
I like this,spend more time outside and we get more skin cancer. these people just can't think past the end of there noses!!!
A statement from a Native American has great merit.
Only a white man would cut six inches off of the bottom of his blanket and sew it back on the top to make it longer.
The earth's pattern, the sun and moon pattern, is going to do what it does naturally, whether you change the time of day or not. It makes no difference on the amount of sunlight/daylight or night time when the earth moves around the sun, etc. Changing the time does not make any difference whatsoever. I say, leave the clocks/time alone and let the natural time do it's "thing".
Saves "1% per day"!!!???? 1% PER DAY??? Really?
So....... in 100 days we will be saving 100% and therefore energy independent forever. Wow wow wow. Where do I sign up?
1% per day is not equal to 100% in 100 days. Percentages are not simply additive. You have to take into account that the production output per day is not equal to production output in 100 days.
Think before u post lol
Pick a time and stick with it !!!!!!!
I wish they would just pick a time and stick with it!
For years I have wondered why industries didn't simply change their working skedules in the Spring and Fall rather than to change the clock.
DST is an anachronism that was never needed in the first place. Agrarian societies didn't go by the time on a clock--they worked from sun up to sun down. And how safe is it for schoolchildren to walk to school before sunrise?
Where do you know of that children WALK to school? Not anywhere in my state. The school buses and fuel are the biggest items in the budget.
the city
I have kids walking to school on the edge of hi-way 6 in Hitchcook Tx. and it was pretty dark.
You poor unquestioning, wage slaves. The answer is simple: we should work less when there's less daylight.
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