Arghhh, I hate Daylight Savings Time. I have to remind myself 50 million times to change my clocks. Half of them change on their own, half don't. So if you know me very well, you know that it might be next weekend before my lazy butt actually makes the change. Since we "Spring Forward" tonight, we'll lose an hour.
I guess the question there is why? Why do we even make this completely annoying change that messes with our internal clocks twice a year? Anybody who's seen National Treasure can tell you that the blame lies with Benjamin Franklin. In 1784, he proposed making the change to help cut back on candle usage in times when it gets darker earlier. Whoda thunket, Benjamin Franklin was the original environmentalist!
It actually didn't become official until the World War II era when the US Government was looking for ways to cut back on energy usage at home while our boys were in Europe fighting against Hitler. There have been a couple of government acts that legislated what days each year the changes were to be implemented. And did you know...states do not have to participate in Daylight Savings Time. Arizona and Hawaii do not. Who says state's rights are dead?
Was Ben right; does changing the clock save energy? According to an article I found on Discovery.com, yes it does. One 1970's study said that we save 1% in energy costs because changing the time cuts back on the amount of time people in warmer climates have to run their air conditioners. I know, 1% whoo-hoo! We're rolling in the dough there! But hey, 1% is better than nothing. A more recent 2007 study said that the number of evening car crashes decrease 10% during the Spring and Summer months thanks to the clock change.
So it might be annoying but I guess it does save a little on energy costs and 10% fewer auto accidents sounds good to me. Therefore, I bow to you, Mr. Franklin. Good idea.
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