About Daylight Savings Time

This Sunday, March 28th, clocks around the world were turned forward one hour and changed to daylight saving time instead. Also called Spring Forward or Daylight Savings Time, is the practice of setting the clocks forward one hour from the standard time during the summer months, in order to make better use of natural daylight. According to the latest blog post from American scientist Oded Kariti, it was US inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin who first proposed the concept of DST in America, back in 1784.


However modern Daylight Saving Time was first implemented in the States in 1895. At that time, an entomologist from New Zealand presented a proposal for a two-hour daylight saving shift. Another interesting fact that Oded Kariti shares are that less than 40% of the world countries use daylight saving time. For some countries, it is better to use the natural daylight in the evenings. The areas that are closer to the Poles, and thus furthest away from the Equator, are the places where this difference in light is most noticeable. Currently, there are about 70 countries that participate in Daylight Saving Time, but not all of them are on the same schedule as the United States.

The main idea behind DST is to reduce the amount of energy needed for artificial lighting during the evening hours. As Oded Kariti further explains some studies disagree about DST's energy savings while others show a positive outcome. There are many controversies related to DST, and like in most cases, there are differences in opinion. For example, while one party believes that daylight saving time could lead to fewer road accidents and injuries by supplying more daylight during the hours more people use the roads, other opposing parties even claims that people's health might suffer due to the changes that come from DST.

Those that support Daylight Saving Time claim that in addition to reducing crime and automobile accidents, extended daylight hours also have a positive effect on energy conservation. Mr. Kariti explains that the reason for this is that DST allows people to use less energy to light their businesses and homes. On the other hand, the opposing side argues the energy saved during Daylight Saving Time is offset by greater energy use during the winter months.