Daylight Saving Time should be abolished but here's why it won't be

It’s time for that funny ritual that takes place twice a year: making your clocks “fall back” or “spring forward”.

There are many reasons I support the abolition of Daylight Saving Time. I won’t go through them in detail because there are many resources online that give the arguments. Fundamentally, the artificial change addition and subtraction of an hour once a year wreaks havoc on our health, the health of animals who live on our clock, and time handling by computers. Also, the theoretical benefits (saving energy or providing “more” daylight for our enjoyment) have disappointed empirically.

This is an example of unintended consequences of messing around with nature in a technocratic attempt to be clever without taking into account the impact on the normal flow of life.

Unfortunately, I expect Daylight Saving Time to stay around in most places where it already exists, because it is entrenched and there are people who do like it and don’t like change. I can understand some of their arguments, as far as their being used to certain amounts of daylight at certain times of year. But even if it is reasonable to alter the relationship between light and life activities, that can happen without changing the time. Schools or businesses could change their schedules, rather than change everyone’s time. We could get up earlier if we are unhappy with missing morning sun.

In other words, the issues surrounding getting rid of Daylight Saving Time and returning to a natural constant stream of time are no longer scientific in nature. They are political and psychological.

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