....to get an hour of Sun... every day for the next 7 months . In my opinion March 11th is now one of the greatest days. Say goodbye to SAD and say hello to SUN. With the barebones reduction in carbon emissions (a reduction is a reduction, no matter how small-- every little bit helps), and the joy it brings me and every person who's mood is directly tied to the weather, how could this change be bad. Who suffers? What cost is there in balance with the benefits? Besides the computer folks who had to suffer through a mini Y2K to coordinate Outlook and meeting planner updates.
The Children. I had a chance to chat with a lovely elderly lady the other day while her husband received an MRI. Our conversation slipped into politics. Discussing Bush as a person who lacks depth in understanding of cause-and-effect, we moved through iraq to global warming. Having agreed on these topics, but still outside the realm of casual conversation, I pivoted the discussion to a much less volatile subject, so I thought, of daylight savings time. Not every one likes losing an hour, but clearly someone with more than a dab of foresight can appreciate the benefit of having that extra hour of sun. It was on this safe topic that I hit a wall. She became adamantly opposed to moving 'spring forward' several weeks forward. Heartfelt she described children standing out for the bus in pitch black of night. She discussed how in the Nixon administration they tried moving this date up before only to realize the costs actually outweighed the benefits. This lady's passion about it has not dampened my sincere love for what tonight means for me over the next 7 months, but it does give me a sense of history repeating itself. I wonder if the benefits do actually outweigh the costs... if this time the environmental factors barely make this change worth it... or if I should only tentatively hold the second sunday in march as one of my favorite days. History may repeat itself in the near future, and I'll have lived through some of the few Marches of recent memory that the sun set after 7pm in Pittsburgh.
Register to Vote
|
3 comments:
"While it did save energy, Nixon's act also increased the number of morning traffic accidents involving schoolchildren. These "dark morning" incidents were offset by a reduction in child accidents later in the day..."
That's from the Slate article http://www.slate.com/id/2161520/?nav=fix
...so your patients were only half-informed??
Plus I think sunrise is so early, unless kids are standing at bus stops at 5:30am they're not going to be in pitch black. And also there's such a thing as street lights, which I don't think were as common in rural America during WW2 and post-war eras.
So I think we should continue to be pleased as pie about daylight savings! :) :) :)
Interesting article! Slate's so great.
But sunrise today was 7:37am (not that I was up to find out... or that my bedroom has windows!).
harris' farmer's almanac has a super-informative piece on DST. Before reading that, I was so confused as to why we ever decided to mangle with Time, and how it worked in various regions, but it's all clear now. Or at least it was a month ago when I read it.
btw, my mood is so weather-dependent. Yesterday, the sun shined for the first time in weeks and I felt like I could fly if I tried
Post a Comment