Daylight Saving Time , Why and How..

The alarm goes off, and you peer at the dial in the gloom. Thoughts of enjoying the warm bed for a few minutes more, sort of unsuccessfully try and cross your mind, while your brain cranks up for the day, at whatever revolutions per minute , and Daylight Saving Time, just hits you. With a bang. You, eject yourself into a vertical situation, as it strikes you that its not really 5 am, but 6 am.

For years together, folks have follwed the dictum "Spring forward, Fall back" to remember, what needs to be done, when to all the watches in the house. The undisguised glee of working actually 7 instead of 8 hours on a particular day in April, nicely cancels out the despair at actually working an extra hour in the depressing Fall environment.

Beginning in 2007, things are scheduled to change.

The United States Senate passed the "United States Energy Policy Act 2005" and decreed several things , in an effort at teaching its citizens to conserve energy. Somewhere in the 1700 pages that outline the governments dictats, the DST 2007 factor appeared. While energy saving maybe achieved also by driving around less, sharing and pooling cars, using more fuel efficient vehicles, and having another quiet look at the Kyoto protocol, what has been suggested , and will happen in 2007, is we will have 4 more weeks of daylight savings time.

According to the new rule, DST will now start on the second sunday in March, ie 11th (instead of first sunday in April) , and continue till first sunday in November ie the 4th, (instead of the last sunday in October). So we now have 4 more glorious weeks of sunshine.

Daylight Saving Time is not a fixed idea. From time to time through the ages, it has been stipulated, questioned, followed, ridculed, abolished, and sometimes, even applauded.

Among the many things attributed to Benjamin Franklin, DST must be the most ordinary one. Always looking out for what was good for the folks, this was a suggestion, to allow the citizens to officially enjoy the summer and sunlight more, and like sunflowers, "catch every sunbeam" as it were. He did NOT mention Daylight Savings time explicitly, but in a satirical essay he wrote , he urged the people of Paris, to get up earlier in the morning , so as to burn less candle wax at night. No good. The next person to try was a William Willett , who actually wrote and published a paper called "A Waste of Daylight" replete with tables and theories and proposals for adjustments of time. But Her Majesty's Government would have none of it. (Maybe it was HIS Majesty's government then......).

It was, finally, the Germans , noticing that the World War 1 was simply dragging on and on, who put it into practice in order to increase productivity, in 1916, between April and October. Shortly after that Britain followed suit.

Actually, DST has a long history. In British English , it is called Summer Time. By 1918, The US Congress followed suit, and passed a rule imposing Daylight Saving Time. However, this was wildly unpopular, and unlike today, (and the various Iraq legislations), this legislation was repealed. It took the next war to bring the legislation back.

Turns out that by 1966, the various states were arbitrarily follwing Daylight Saving Time in their own way, and Congress felt the need to step in. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 created Daylight Saving Time. Then in 1986 the law was modified to make it longer.

This was not an easy law to implement. In 1972, Congress revised the law to provide that, if a state was in two or more time zones, the state could exempt the part of the state that was in one time zone while providing that the part of the state in a different time zone would observe Daylight Saving Time.

Under legislation enacted in 1986, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. began at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and ended at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time in the U.S, . beginning in 2007, though Congress retained the right to revert to the 1986 law should the change prove unpopular or if energy savings are not significant.

Why this obsession with bequeathing the masses, with more and more sunshine? Is the governent really worried about how much the children get to play in the evenings ? Is it worried about children stepping out in the dark as they trudge to their schools in the early days of the Fall? Why the need for someone to legislate about this ?

Turns out that unless the government stepped in to make rules, transport and communications would really go haywire Imagine trains that traverse through several states, having to suddenly stop and remain stationary for an hour, (as the next approaching state set back the clock,) so the people in he next state need not miss their train. What happens when the time is set ahead ? With a country expanse spanning several timezones, how do you handle deadlines for a whole country, with states doing their own thing, so to speak, timewise ?

Somehow, somewhere, one feels this is made to look all too straight forward. Legislations happen because it is a desperate need for someone, whether its the rich, the poor, the business types, the armed forces, the women, the senior citizens, or the struggling taxpayers. So who would really be obssessed with the change in timing ?

Aha !

"From the beginning the reason we extended daylight saving was retail sales profited," said Michael Downing a professor at Tufts University. "In 1986 the last time we extended the period... the golf industry said it was worth $200 million."

Michael May, Director of Media Relations at the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Associationt says , "It is good for the country and it's good for our health . We live such sedentary lives... when it's light outside we gravitate to that light."

However, keeping aside these obvious folks who benefit commercially from these laws (yawn ... so whats new ?), it is interesting to note how DSThas affected ordinary human beings and not so ordinary events around the world.

Thanks to DST ending just before Halloween, statistics say, that children's pedestrian deaths are four times higher on Halloween than on any other night of the year. For years together, candy manufacturers lobbied for a Daylight Saving Time extension to Halloween, as many of the young trick-or-treaters gathering candy are not allowed out after dark . In 2006 , DST ended just before Halloween. The US Congress paasing the 2005 Energy Act, enlarging the scope of DST , has actually been an answer to the prayers of these candy manufacturers, who earlier probably stood no chance whatsoever competing with oil companies, arm manufacturers and assorted types who frequent the Hill. This year Hallween happens in Daylight Saving Time.

Folks even used the DST to avoid Vietnam. So much simpler than escaping to Canada and Europe, and/or fudging records, as some people may have done. A man, born just after 12:00 a.m. DST, circumvented the Vietnam War draft by using a daylight saving time loophole. When drafted, he argued that standard time, not DST, was the official time for recording births in his state of Delaware in the year of his birth. Thus, under official standard time he was actually born on the previous day-and that day had a much higher draft lottery number, allowing him to avoid the draft.

Sometimes, even terrorist outfits mess up on Daylight Saving Time. In the Middle East, in 1999, when war activities were at an high, the West Bank was on Daylight saving time, while Israel had just reverted to Standard time. West Bank terrorists wanted to surreptiously plant bombs in places in Israel. What happened is they smuggled the bombs in successfully, but while installing them, thanks to the difference in time, the bombs went off an hour early, killing three terrorists. The actual target was a busload of tourists......

Ever heard of trains waiting for time ? Well, Amtrak trains function according to a published timetable. DST or Standard time, it doesnt make a difference. So, In October, when we fall back one hour, a train , in the middle of nowhere, will stop in its tracks at 2 am. It stays staionary for an hour till it is 2 am again after an hour, and then leaves. Thats Amtrak for you, always on time....

Being told at a bar, that the witching hour has arrived, and that you will now enjoy drinks and revelry for an hour less, has often been te bone of contention whenever the time has to spring forward an hour in March-April. Folks at a University town in Ohio, got so upset when the clocks jumped an hour one April, that police had to be called and bottles were thrown at the police , who were trying to implement bar closing timings.

But nothing beats the story of the Iowa buses. During the 60's when each state did what it felt like regarding DST, there were 23 different DST start-and-end dates in Iowa. For about 5 weeks in a year, Boston, New York and Philadelphia always showed different timings when compared to Washington DC, but Chicago always matched Washington DC timing. On a bus route that went from Ohio to West Virginia, the time changed 7 times withing 35 miles. People went crazy readjunsting their watches, Industries incurred huge expenses , and Rail timetables had to be printed in several versions and quantities causing an expense of about 12 million a year.

Looks like the various states of the Union competed to be controversial as far as DST goes.

Minnesota prides itself on its twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul, separated by the Mississippi River. There was a time in 1965 that St Paul followed national guidelines, and Minneapolis followed State; there was a time difference of an hour as you crossed the Missisippi. The cities quarelled, and could not reach a consensus, and caused a lot of difficulty and hardship to people from the surrounding areas.

Following the 1973 oil embargo, the U.S. Congress extended Daylight Saving Time to 8 months, rather than the normal six months. During that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation found that observing Daylight Saving Time in March and April saved the equivalent in energy of 10,000 barrels of oil each day - a total of 600,000 barrels in each of those two years.

Likewise, in 1986, Daylight Saving Time moved from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. No change was made to the ending date of the last Sunday in October. Adding the entire month of April to Daylight Saving Time is estimated to save the U.S. about 300,000 barrels of oil each year.

Today, there are still some parts of the US that refuse to bow to the dictats of DST. Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona DO NOT observe Daylight Saving time. . The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.

At the end of the day, a thought comes to mind.

Today, everything has a monetary value. You set the clock back. It costs. You set it ahead, it costs someone else, and benefits some others. Oil barrels are saved, children can play more and play safely.

Did anyone ever consider the other option, of organising your life with the sun, rather than force the sun to run pitter patter behind the moving hour and minute hands of the clock? Before we became so activity conscious and money conscious, how did people live ?

The farmer woke with the sun, based his working hours and relaxation times on the activity of the sun. The seasons dictated not only his crops, but also his daily routine, of arising, working, mealtimes, familytimes and so on. The seasonal produce provided him nutrition appropriate to the environment in which he thrived on his lifestyle, and this provided year round variety in food, in warmer climes. In colder climes, more energy producing food ws required, and so the diet changed. There were things you did in winter, and stuff you enjoyed in summer, and activities you initiated in the Fall. And you lived according to the sun's natural movement.

There is an element of artificiality, in this whole concept of Daylight saving time. The body functions differently in summer than, say in the thick of winter. One adjusts lifelong, and in a natural manner to the changes in seasons and the length of the day, and the whole set of dynamic chnages keep the body in a fine balance.

But these are useless thoughts in a world, where extending the DST into November is going to hopefully increase the voter turnout in the 2008 Presidential elections, and malls and supermarkets get that extra gleam in their eye as they think about the extra so many million in sales in the summer evenings.

And trust the Bristish Aristocracy to put a new twist into the matter. Britain initially did not take happily to Daylight Saving time. The Royal Meteorological Society insisted that Greenwich time would still be used to measure tides. The parks belonging to the Office of Works and the London County Council decided to close at dusk, which meant that they would be open an extra hour in the evening. Kew Gardens, on the other hand, ignored the daylight saving scheme and decided to close by the clock. There was a fair bit of opposition from the general public and from agricultural interests who wanted daylight in the morning, but Lord Balfour came forward with a unique concern:

"Supposing some unfortunate lady was confined with twins and one child was born 10 minutes before 1 o'clock. ... the time of birth of the two children would be reversed. ... Such an alteration might conceivably affect the property and titles in that House."

Hmm.

Simply boggles the mind. And we thought it was all about barrels of oil and children getting to play ?