I’m late with this post, but in a way it doesn’t matter because it’s not that I benefited from setting the cocks back one hour at the end of last month. 7 am became 6 am, so that meant a lie-in – right?
Not with 2 small daughters who haven’t yet synced their body clocks to our artificial clocks. And certainly not with 2 small daughters who are excited about going to the zoo!
I suppose I can hardly blame them – it’s now light again outside in the mornings, and it is this fact which made me question why we bother with this “daylight saving time” – surely it’s a case of daylight enhancement?
As we move through Autumn and towards the Winter solstice, the change in inclination of the Earth with respect to the sun means that darkness descends earlier each evening. Setting the clock an hour back speeds up this process; by putting the clock back an hour it’s now even darker at the same (clock) time. We exaggerate – not combat – the darkness.
The converse is true in Spring when putting the clock forward an hour adds to the lightening effect. It stays light for longer, and even more so once the clocks have advanced an hour. We’re not saving daylight, we’re actually using it up quicker.
Isn’t this misuse of that hour?
It seems to me that if we can’t properly deal with a single hour then it’s a good deal that we’re not yet able to time travel!
Paul
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