Daylight Spending Time?

by Sarah Novak

An interesting interview on NPR sheds some light on why we will be moving our clocks ahead this weekend, weeks earlier than usual.  To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the legislative action on this front.  Because this was part of an energy bill, I thought the goal was to conserve energy because more natural light means less need for artificial light.  Michael Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time,” says this misrepresents the issue – it’s based more on corporate profit than conservation.

When we have more light after work, people take advantage of it by going places and doing things, and use more gasoline driving around longer.  Downing says that retailers, who know people spend more money when they stay out longer, and lobbied hard for an earlier start to daylight saving time.  Downing also discusses one of the bizarre reasons the fall time change will be delayed this year.  Apparently candy companies lobbied Congress to push it past Halloween so that kids will have more light and spend more time trick-or-treating, collecting more candy in the process.  Is it just me or does that conjure up images of Willy Wonka and those little M&M guys marching down to Capitol Hill to testify? 

I’m not sure how I feel about all of this.  As a native southerner living in the cold, dark northeast, I am thrilled about the prospect of more daylight.  The purported misrepresentation of why the shift is occurring leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but it’s hard to say that people will be worse off because of it.  The computer glitches that have been predicted are supposed to be minor, and even though kids may get more candy this Halloween, they will probably be safer with more light.  There is one bonus I see that was not discussed.  It is my hope that people will take advantage of the extra light to get outside and burn a different type of energy.  We can use those hours to go on walks, bike rides, and find other healthy ways to be active with our friends and family members.

Comments

[Natalie]

I don't really understand the logic behind the candy industry's interest in extending daylight hours on Halloween. Trick-or-treaters don't go parading from store to store, so giving them more time outside will not necessarily increase how much candy gets bought. Right?

[Pamela]

I think it's a good idea to extend daylight hours on Halloween-- Children's Health & Safety groups would have been wise to lobby for this long ago. The risk that a child will get struck by a car, kidnapped, or somehow harmed on Halloween diminishes if trick-or-treating takes place in the daylight. Besides, the amount of candy that children collect through trick-or-treating and later consume should be regulated by parents and guardians-- not the food industry. When I was a kid, I used to come home from trick-or-treating with a pillowcase stuffed with candy-- thankfully my parents didn't allow me to keep every last piece.

[Robin]

I predict the earlier DST will do nothing to increase profits for the candy industry.

My cabinets *still* contain candies that I never gave out last Halloween. Many people I know have the same experience - they buy more than they give out. I doubt DST will lead to so much of a surge in candy demand that a large number of people would need to go out and buy more candy.