Daylight Savings Time

We do it every year; changing our clocks when daylight savings arrives. We wake up tired from losing an hour of sleep, but why do we even have daylight savings? Why do we still have daylight savings in the first place? The article End Daylight SavingsTime conducted a survey and asked people why they believed we still continue Daylight Savings. Many people answered, “To help farmers.” However, that is not the case as many farmers generally oppose the action of daylight saving time. Farmers must wake at dawn no matter what the time is or what the clock says, so they struggle to sell their crops to their consumers who do observe daylight savings.

Modern daylight savings did not begin because of farmers, but because of World War I. Germany was the first to implement daylight savings according to Time and Dates clocks were first turned forward at 11:00 p.m. on April 30, 1916. The purpose of daylight savings was to minimize the use of artificial lighting in order to save fuel for World War I. Many countries who were involved in the war followed in Germany’s footsteps and began to observe daylight savings time including many European countries and the United States. Many countries began to revert back to the standard time used before World War I. However, daylight savings was brought back again when World War II began when countries needed to save vital energy and resources for the impending war.

Daylight saving time is observed by over seventy countries worldwide; affecting almost one billion people every year. The beginning and end of daylight savings varies from country to country.

Although daylight savings may have been useful during World War I and World War II, today in the twenty first century it is not. It does not benefit anyone. It does not benefit us, as we lose an hour of sleep each year when we convert back to standard time. It does not benefit farmers and their working conditions but actually makes it harder for them to sell to their produce to consumers who do use daylight savings time. It does not save electricity. In fact when Indiana began observing daylight savings in 2006, there was a 1% rise in the use of electricity. According to the video: Daylight Savings- How Is This Still A Thinga study shows there is an increase in car accidents and work related injury the week after daylight savings has ended. So with all this you have to wonder why we still have daylight savings.