By Nathaniel DePaul
Let’s face it - Daylight Saving Time helps absolutely no one.
That may seem a little antagonistic to the friendly farmers who are alleged to receive the main benefit of turning the clocks forward and backwards twice each year, but I’ll make my case nonetheless.
DST never gained traction until the first great tragedy of the 20th century: World War I.
First implemented by Germany in one of many areas of reform aimed at conservation to help the wartime effort, many other nations temporarily adopted the practice, including the United States.
And, although it goes against the legend, one of the greatest opponents of the move in 1918 America was the agricultural industry, as it would actually lead to a net loss in productivity, as farmers don’t care about the clocks, only the sun itself.
And since farmhands still left at the same time every day to eat dinner, the farms were actually losing man hours due to DST, so it should come as no surprise that agrarian interests lobbied hard for what would be the eventual repeal of a DST law at the federal level at the conclusion of the war in 1919.
However, some local ordinances kept the practice, which led to some often confusing situations when traveling around the country.
A federal DST was brought back during the Second World War and ended at its conclusion, and would not become standard practice outside of wartime until a 1966 law was signed into place.
Known as the Uniform Time Act, this federal mandate created a single framework for a standardized DST schedule, while giving states the ability to opt out of the plan individually.
The law was revised slightly in 2005 with the Energy Policy Act, changing the dates and times to change by a slight margin, while continuing to give states the ability to opt out.
Only Arizona currently opts out of practicing Daylight Saving Time, and spoiler alert, they’re doing just fine in the Grand Canyon state.
In fact, one could argue they are doing even better than the rest of us, considering they don’t have sunlight streaming into their windows before seven in the morning, and incredible darkness at five in the afternoon.
Besides this general inconvenience, there is a lot of data to suggest that with DTS does more harm than good. Due to factors such as air conditioning in the summer months, which couldn’t be considered when DST was dreamed up in the 1800s, there is either no effect of Daylight Saving Time on energy usage, or there’s a negative one.
Meaning, we go through all this trouble of changing the clocks and having to wake up an hour earlier in March, which you feel for more than one day, for nothing?
All I’m saying is, the day we set the clocks forward, researchers determined that there is a 24 percent increased risk for heart attacks; I don’t think this is a coincidence.
So if you’re tired of going through all this hassle to come up with a net zero, call your Congressman, and tell them it’s time to end Daylight Saving Time on the national level, once and for all.
Comments