Starting March 9, clocks turned
for summer time, stealing one hour of sleep but giving us in return one
extra-hour of light in the afternoon. What is the point in all this, you might
wonder, and the answer is very simple: to save energy.
The Daylight Saving Time routine
takes place all over the globe, but not at the same time. The Unites States for
example extended its period of ‘summer time’ with four more weeks compared to
Europe, all for energy purposes.
In 2005, President Bush signed
an energy bill meant to respond to energy problems across the United States. According
to the new law, the time change begins on the second Sunday of March and ends
on the first Sunday of November.
Of course, if some countries
choose to follow the Daylight Saving Time system, other countries, such as
Japan or China observe it without making any time modifications. Even some U.S.
states, such as Hawaii or Arizona observe Daylight Saving time without changing
hours, due to very small variations between summer and winter daylight length.
As of 2007, the Unites States
took on the 2005 bill and extended the ‘summer time’ until after Halloween,
with no direct link to energy savings of course, but due to the Halloween Safety
Act, with the purpose allowing children to trick-or-treat on daylight.
The idea of extending daylight
came as early as antiquity, as the Romans used to adjust time depending on the
month they were in. Two thousand years later, Benjamin Franklin made the
suggestion to Parisians, in order to help them economize candles: “Early to
bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy and wise,” he said.
But it wasn’t Franklin who
proposed Daylight Saving Time (DST), but William Willet, who in 1905 started
advancing the idea. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t get to see it
materialize, but more than a decade later, the Germans were the first to adopt
it, during World War I.
Not all countries adopted DST at
the same time, but they started doing it as soon as they realized the
advantages it brings, from energy savings (which some don’t agree with), to public
safety and even heath benefits, as an extra-hour of light provides extra sun-light
for outdoor exercise.
Ever since the idea first
started, almost a century ago, it has been surrounded by controversy, whether
concerning energy savings, which some say are not real, but on the contrary
could lead to more electricity consumption due to the extra afternoon hour, or
economic disadvantages due to clock shifts. We can always expect new changes to
take place, but for the time being, we should just enjoy the extra daylight!
