Thank you very much Benjamin Franklin for writing an essay on Daylight Saving in 1784 while you were in Paris. What were you thinking? (Please answer soon as there are many other questions I have for you.)
The standardized observance of time has come about largely because of the economic needs of commerce. Our lawful use and observance of a standard time has only been around in the U.S. for about 90 years with the passing of the Standard Time Act of 1918 by Congress. It only took Congress about 35 years to act, as the railroads had been using a standardized time system since around 1883. Yes, you may draw some parallels to the politics of our time and the glacial speed limit of a multiple party government, but would we really want all of the laws that a more time efficient government could impose?
We are not talking about bottling up a little sunshine and letting it lose later for some extra warmth, or are we? This is the day that we humans have taken it upon ourselves to think that we have made some special impact upon the laws of physics. The Earth is still spinning at the same rate, and the number of minutes of sunshine has not magically changed. This is just a convenient attitude adjustment; possibly an energy saver, and certainly a convenient and easy way to have a few extra moments to enjoy the evenings of summer. Think of this in the terms of the words of the song by Jimmy Buffet; “changes in latitude, changes in attitude”. This is like dropping to more southerly latitude overnight. An instant vacation.
If you have never lived in southern Arizona, I will explain that the southwestern deserts are not in need of any more time at the end of the day waiting for the sun to sink below the horizon. If the sun could actually start its setting at around noon it would be heralded as a great boon during the summer months. When I used to live there (my native State) we would rhetorically ask a tourist if they knew the difference between night and day in southern Arizona, to which they would shake their head in the negative direction. And then we would tell them that it gets dark at night. Not cooler, just dark. Many summer nights there it is still 100 degrees Fahrenheit while we were watching the news at 10 PM. That was the big city where asphalt and rooftops have conspired to harvest the daylight heat and then slowly release it over the course of the night. The Navajo Nation, which is partially in Arizona, has chosen to go their own way and observe Daylight Saving Time, but they are at a much higher elevation and probably more connected to the economies of neighboring states than they are to the Capitol of Arizona located a mile closer to the center of the earth and much further south. In my opinion, the Navajos have pretty much always gone their own way, sort of like Benjamin Franklin.
We are not talking about bottling up a little sunshine and letting it lose later for some extra warmth, or are we? This is the day that we humans have taken it upon ourselves to think that we have made some special impact upon the laws of physics. The Earth is still spinning at the same rate, and the number of minutes of sunshine has not magically changed. This is just a convenient attitude adjustment; possibly an energy saver, and certainly a convenient and easy way to have a few extra moments to enjoy the evenings of summer. Think of this in the terms of the words of the song by Jimmy Buffet; “changes in latitude, changes in attitude”. This is like dropping to more southerly latitude overnight. An instant vacation.
If you have never lived in southern Arizona, I will explain that the southwestern deserts are not in need of any more time at the end of the day waiting for the sun to sink below the horizon. If the sun could actually start its setting at around noon it would be heralded as a great boon during the summer months. When I used to live there (my native State) we would rhetorically ask a tourist if they knew the difference between night and day in southern Arizona, to which they would shake their head in the negative direction. And then we would tell them that it gets dark at night. Not cooler, just dark. Many summer nights there it is still 100 degrees Fahrenheit while we were watching the news at 10 PM. That was the big city where asphalt and rooftops have conspired to harvest the daylight heat and then slowly release it over the course of the night. The Navajo Nation, which is partially in Arizona, has chosen to go their own way and observe Daylight Saving Time, but they are at a much higher elevation and probably more connected to the economies of neighboring states than they are to the Capitol of Arizona located a mile closer to the center of the earth and much further south. In my opinion, the Navajos have pretty much always gone their own way, sort of like Benjamin Franklin.
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