March 12th, Most of the United States and Canada wake up in stolen time. Europe she will suffer the same loss two weeks later. It is a victim of the persistent and unpopular practice of switching to daylight saving time. Many countries around the world have avoided or abandoned the practice, but in the United States and Europe, legislators have been unable to stop their clocks from changing.
Countries began switching between standard time in winter and daylight saving time in summer in an attempt to reduce energy costs during World War I. The longer the daylight hours in the evening, the shorter the time the lights are on. In the United States and Europe, this practice has taken root and continues. But it faces increasing backlash.
“Globally, the debate is fixed. More and more countries are not changing their clocks,” said co-coordinator of the Barcelona Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society, an organization focused on time-related policies. Ariadna Guell Sanz says: Studies have shown that setting her clocks forward or backward by an hour has adverse effects on the economy, road safety and health. Still, the United States, Europe, and some other countries are finding it hard to break the habit.Güell Sans said the question is whether to use standard time or daylight saving time forever.
A year ago, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to permanently advance clocks by one hour. But it wasn’t even picked up by the U.S. House of Representatives, which required the bill to be passed before it could be sent to the president’s desk.
Europe is also on the verge of ending the clock change, but the crisis has stopped it. First was Covid-19. And over the past year, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been the focus of the bloc’s attention. The European Parliament voted to stop the clock from changing in 2019, but failed to get the necessary approval from the European Union’s other legislative body, the Council of Europe. The Council then referred the issue to her EU executive branch, the European Commission, for impact assessment.
Progress is slow, and that’s bad for many reasons. Increased nighttime brightness reduces collisions on the road during evening rush hour. That’s why Steve Calandillo, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law who studies the economics of daylight saving time, advocates making daylight saving time permanent. “Darkness kills,” says Calandillo. “And the sun’s rays are salvation.” This also has economic benefits. A study published last November claimed that an extra hour of sun in the evening could reduce crashes, saving about $1.2 billion a year in the United States alone.
Extra sunlight while people are awake can also make them spend more money. increase. A 2016 report by JPMorgan Chase & Co. looked at spending in Los Angeles at the start and end of the summertime period and compared it to Phoenix, Arizona, where clocks were not changed. After the number of stitches was brought forward compared to Phoenix, Los Angeles experienced a 0.9% increase in daily credit card spending per capita in March and a 3.5% decrease in November.
