Another time change
Published on Oct 28, 2006 at 1:27 pm.
8 Comments.
Filed under calendars, time.
Well, there’s another time change that is upon us. I always hate it when we have to change time. The idea goes all the way back to Benjamin Franklin, who proposed to the French that they adjust the time during the summer months. You see, due to the tilt of the Earth, the summer days are longer than the winter days. The net result is that the Sun rises early and sets late. The farther north or south of the equator you are, the bigger this effect. For much of the temperate regions of the Earth, the Sun can rise an hour or two earlier at the Summer Solstice than at the Winter Solstice (and likewise set an hour or two later). But, as Franklin observed, city folk simply don’t get up earlier when the Sun rises early. Rather, we live our lives fixed to a time schedule. So, he proposed messing with the clocks to get people to get up earlier. Naturally, the idea wasn’t popular.
But, the idea didn’t die, and William Willet put a new twist on it in his bid to get the British to adopt the scheme. He showed why wasting daylight was a bad idea in terms of economic impact (saving energy by getting up early and going to be early when the days are longer, so you don’t need to have as many lights on in the evening). Again the idea flopped. However, during World War I, things changed. Germany enacted a time shifting measure to save energy in 1916. The British almost immediately copied them, and then other countries began to follow suit. In 1918, the US Congress passed legislation that finally established official time zones that had been in informal use for some time. They also established Daylight Saving Time. Under this plan, the clocks are set ahead one hour for force people to get up an hour early each day.
Daylight Saving Time in the Us has been controversial ever since. Some people really are all in favor of it, and others hate it. It is certainly inconvenient to change the time, and it is often sort of rough on a lot of people to shift by an entire hour. Now, given my crazy schedule, I have little problem staying up an hour later after the Autumn shift back, but it is tough on my to get up early in the Spring. I have several friends who are flight attendants and pilots, and they are constantly shifting back and forth all the time, so perhaps it is easier on them than most people. But, the majority of people don’t have to change their schedules much, so the twice annual time shift really throws their biological clocks. Willet’s original proposal seemed smoother, with just 20 minutes jumps at a time, spaced a few weeks apart. But, then you’d have to remember to adjust multiple times per year instead of just two.
Traditionally, Daylight Saving Time started here in the US on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October, or at least that is how it was for most of my life. Once during the mid 1970’s, we stayed on Daylight Saving Time all year. Then, in the 1980’s we changed to beginning the first Sunday in April and ending the last Sunday in October. So, this weekend, being the last Sunday in October, we end Daylight Saving Time, and we go back to “Standard Time.” However, Congress recently enacted legisation to change it again. Next year, we start the second Sunday in March and go until the first Sunday in November. Again, the rationale is to save energy.
But, I am not sure that energy savings is really a good rationale anymore. Back when this was proposed, and for much of the 20th Century, getting up early and going to bed early in the summer did save energy. People worked by natural light more. Outdoor activities were easier in the evenings. But now, there are all sorts of outdoor lilghts that are on almost all night, so a change in time makes no difference. Many businesses are open 24 hours, and people stay up much later than they used to. So, changing the time largely shifts when the electricity is used. Furthermore, under Daylight Saving Time, more people are getting off work in the hottest part of the day in much of the southern part of the US. Here in Texas, and in many other places, that puts lots of cars on the road at just the wrong time of day, so the automobile exhaust is most easily broken down in the sunlight to produce more pollution. Also, this means that more people are firing up air conditioners at the absolute worst possible time, increasing demand, and putting an undue stress on the electric transmission grid.
Now, there are other rationales for changing the time. But, this rationale is not really one for Daylight Saving Time, but rather one for not observing it all year. According to that argument, not observing Daylight Saving Time in the winter is good, because it means that there will be fewer children going to school, riding bicycles and waiting for school busses, in the dark before dawn. Proponents of Daylight Saving Time, though, claim that in the summer, when children are often outdoors playing until later in the evening than they would be on school nights in the winter, the extra hour of daylight adds safety for them. Of course, if the parents would keep an eye on the kids …
Some want to shift the time permanently, and then people would not be coming home after dark in the winter. Since I teach night classes, I am almost always am coming home after dark. It was strange the last couple of summers when my class would finish and it was still light out! So, that argument doesn’t affect me, but I can see how it would for others. There had been a major push to get the ending date for Daylight Saving Time pushed back, as it will be next year, to allow for Halloween to be observed before the time shift. That way, the kids going Trick-or-Treat would not be doing so after dark. Of course, in my neighborhood, they keep it up so late that it would still be after dark even without the time change. But, again, if the parents would watch out for the kids …
OK, I don’t have kids, though I always wanted them, so it is easy for me to say that the parents should watch them. But, that is how I feel. I figure that it is the parents’ responsibility to watch after their children, and that is what I would have done, and what I would want to do if I married a woman with children.
So, in short, I personally don’t like the whole idea of shifting the clock around. Furthermore, I don’t get the whole nation doing it. This makes much more sense in the northern part of the US than it does here in the south. The difference in length of days is less extreme here. Extremely far north, say in the northern Canada, it also doesn’t seem to make sense, since the extremes in day and night there are so vast that you don’t really gain or lose anything by shifting the time, other than for a few weeks in the spring and autumn. I guess that you can tell that I’d just as soon leave things alone. If individual businesses and school districts wanted to adjust when their workers or students come and go, they can do so by simply changing starting and stopping times with the season. Then, you get the same benefits as before. If parents worried about their kids going Trick-or-Treating after dark, then they can take them earlier.
That’s my take on the whole thing.
-Astroprof
(Clipart from Clipartheaven.com)
Zavatar on October 28, 2006 at 1:57 pm: 1
I never honestly thought much about the whole daylight savings thing. I always had happened as far as I knew, so it didn’t bother me all that much. I did, however, like your argument that nowadays a change like that isn’t necessary anymore. With electricity, peoples schedules changed and we tend to stay up later and later. Getting up while it’s still dark sucks, I know. I hate it. But I also understand that getting up late tends to waste a lot of the day. All in all, I think it may save enough trouble than it’s worth it. At least until someone comes up with a better idea…
Kelly on October 29, 2006 at 8:55 am: 2
I agree about changing the clocks, Astroprof. I also agree about the kids. I have three, 11,8, and 7. It’s my job to watch them. I want to say “duh” here, because that seems so obvious to me.
Seeking Solace on October 29, 2006 at 10:26 am: 3
I enjoy Daylight Savings Time. I often deal with Vitamin D deficiency, so having the longer daylight hours during the fall and winter would be great.
Astroprof’s Page » A new time for Daylight Saving Time on March 7, 2007 at 11:30 pm: 4
[…] Back in October, I posted something about daylight saving time. For many years, DST has started here in the United States the first Sunday in April and lasted until the last Sunday in October. However, a provision of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changes the rules, starting this year, 2007. This year, Daylight Saving Time starts the second Sunday in March, so that will be this coming weekend. So, at 2:00am on March 11, most of America will suddenly shift to 3:00am. DST will now run until the first Sunday in November. My understanding is that Canada is following suit with the new change. […]
Elaine on March 9, 2007 at 4:18 pm: 5
Do you have more information about the pollution effects of daylight savings time or know of a site that has information? For the record I HATE dst. When I worked days I would set my bedside clock ahead one minute every day beginning February 1–it seemed to help.
Astroprof on March 10, 2007 at 9:37 am: 6
I don\’t have the papes on hand, but over recent years, I\’ve read reports that suggest that the benefits of DST are wildly overstated, and in some cases wrong. One I found quickly, though, is a report on the economic impact of DST and an Australian study on DST. You might also find this idea about crime and DST interesting.
Astroprof’s Page » Falling back on November 3, 2007 at 6:28 pm: 7
[…] It is time for the twice yearly task here in the United States of adjusting the clocks by an hour. At least, most of the US does that. A few places, like Arizona and Hawaii don’t mess with it. For years, we have set the clocks forward on the first Sunday in April and set them back the last Sunday in October. But, as of last March, we started a new rule of setting the clocks forward the second Sunday of March and back on the first Sunday of November. So, for most of us in the US, we set the clocks back at 2am Sunday, November 4, 2007.  If you want to read more about Daylight Saving Time, check out my posting from about a year ago. […]
Astroprof’s Page » Daylight Wasting Time? on March 8, 2008 at 4:19 pm: 8
[…] Tomorrow morning, at 2am, clocks throughout most of the United States will be set one hour forward. This ensures that everyone gets up an hour earlier. That means that they are supposed to go to bed an hour earlier, too. We call this annual exercise Daylight Saving Time. I wrote about Daylight Saving Time a couple years ago. In theory, it saves us all energy. The idea started with Benjamin Franklin, but didn’t really get going in the United States until energy shortages associated with World War I. The basic idea was that in the summer, the days are longer, with the sun rising earlier and setting later. Unfortunately, the sun often rises before people rise. So, if you were to get up earlier, stay away for the same length of time, and then go to bed after the same number of hours, you’d be going to bed earlier and burning oil lamps and electric lights less after sunset. That saves energy. Eventually, Daylight Saving Time was extended to start earlier in the year and to last later in the year. That seemed to save even more energy. Furthermore, it made for even criminals going to bed earlier, so there was less crime, given that sunlight was shining for more hours that people were up. Traffic accidents seemed to drop since people could see the streets better. All-in-all, Daylight Saving Time seemed to work like it was supposed to. […]