Who turned out the lights?
Clocks fell back at 2 a.m. on Sunday, granting an extra hour of shut-eye for those with the good fortune of being able to take advantage. However, extended morning brightness came with a price: an hour of light stolen from the afternoon.
From whence came this twice-yearly time shift? Among early fans was founding father and science tinkerer Benjamin Franklin, who favored daylight saving time because he believed it would make people more productive and save on pricey candle wax. He also suggested that authorities fire cannons in the morning to rouse the citizenry from their beds, which strikes us in hindsight as classic government overreach. Daylight saving time as we know it came about during World War I, when Germany adopted it to save energy, and the allies responded in kind. It made a comeback during World War II.
America didn’t adopt a permanent national system, the Uniform Time Act, until 1966. But states reserve the power to spring ahead and fall back, or not. Hawaii and Arizona have opted out, the former since it’s near the equator and the latter because extra summer daylight in the sun-baked state is associated with, according to an account in the Arizona Republic, “misery.” We cannot relate.
Over the weekend, various media revisited the question of whether the daylight-saving scheme is worth it. Laura Grant, assistant professor of economics at Claremont McKenna College, wrote that studies have not only called into question whether it saves energy (one of the central justifications) and actually suggest it does exactly the opposite. Research looking for positive effects on recreation or crime rates are, Grant reported, “murky.” Other studies, on the other hand, have found increases in heart attacks, workplace accidents and traffic mishaps after a clock change.
Some in New England have been looking for a work-around. A Massachusetts study commission recently came out in favor of shifting to the Atlantic Time Zone — it’s an hour earlier than the Eastern — and ending the practice of monkeying with clocks twice a year. Boston winter afternoons would be much brightened, but sunrise could be as late as 8:14 a.m. in January. The commission said the change would succeed only if other New England states, and crucially New York as well, went along; Maine lawmakers have already voted to do so if Massachusetts and New Hampshire sign up. The New Hampshire Legislature will take up a bill this session to mull the idea. With time on its hands, anything could happen.
We would not be surprised, however, if action stalls, even if shifting to Atlantic Time really is a bright idea. At this point, states are tipping their toes in the water, but they will not jump in unless all do, which means political bravery would have to come from somewhere. And there’s a vast constituency that does not and never will like the idea of sending children off to school in utter darkness on a winter morning.
Beyond that, the power of inaction should never be underestimated. Time marches on, but inertia drags its boots. Even if a better course of action presents itself on this issue, people may well do nothing — not even light an energy-saving LED candle — and curse the darkness.