Daylight Savings, if you didn't realize, was "turned off" today at 2am. I'll be sad since I love my early mornings dark. Why do we still set the clocks when agrarian culture has been defeated by the Industrial Revolution and its introduction to electricity?
Arguments for it suggest it gives us another hour of daylight to be productive and to be able to run errands after a work shift given whatever daylight is left (stimulates the economy). Also encourages more play outdoors or exercise, promoting Vitamin D health.
I disagree with this "energy-saving" tactic. The errands also mean more energy and gasoline emitted into the atmosphere. As Michael Downing, a Tufts University teacher and author, said, “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.”
A report by the California Energy Commission’s Demand Analysis Office concluded that increasing daylight saving time “had little or no effect on energy consumption in California.” Daylight Savings will still be in effect though, due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This allowed Daylight Savings to be pushed weeks deeper in to help combat energy problems. That coerces the sunrise to happen at 8:30am, which is a problem for practicing Jews who have morning services on times predicted by the sun. Preraue points out, "“If sunrise is late, religious Jews have to delay going to work or pray at work, neither of which is a desirable situation."
Not only that, television networks dislike the idea. More daylight means people won't be home in time to watch shows/movies during prime time.
Perhaps (?) ironically, I was having this same talk with folks Saturday at Andy's housewarming party. My points were much the same as the ones you reference, here, going a bit further to mention things such as the corporate lobbies that keep DST going by way of shoveling money into the pockets of policy makers, and the huge farming lobbies that continue to trot out the same old stories and homilies that keep the "truth" of energy savings and more work hours on the books.
ReplyDeleteIt's ridiculous, really. DST has a marked and measurable effect on fatigue, psychological illnesses (depression, anyone?), and fatal accidents (automobile and motorcycle accidents, to name but two). The "energy savings" have been proven to be no longer applicable, and haven't been so for the last decade or more.
All of these things, able to be proven over and over, and yet we still cling to it.
If ever there was a reason to move to Arizona or a country that didn't have DST, those would be the top of my list.