RP384 The Stolen Hour

 RP384 The Stolen Hour

“Give us back our stolen hour!” Britons demanded as they protested against the introduction of Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the 1900s. The idea of altering the clocks to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening during summer has been controversial throughout its history. People have argued that the practice saves energy, reduces crime, and prevents traffic accidents. Others are not so convinced, and studies conducted over the past decade have shown mixed results.
The idea was first implemented in Germany during World War I in an attempt to conserve coal during wartime. Britain soon followed with its own Summer Time but so did confusion and chaos, with some institutions following the changes and some simply ignoring them. One writer resented the laws in a more poetic manner, expressing his distaste at being forced to favor the sun over the moon.
Despite the early controversy, more than 70 countries currently use DST. The United States moves its clocks forward an hour at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and back an hour on the first Sunday in November. Some states, however, still do not apply DST, and in the past even some areas within individual states refused to observe DST while the rest of the state did.
It was originally thought that DST would reduce energy consumption as people would use less electric lighting in the evening due to the increased hours of daylight. However, recent studies have suggested that this benefit has been offset by the increased use of home air conditioners, which people use for longer on long summer evenings.
Brighter evenings have reduced the number of traffic accidents in countries which observe DST, but studies have also noticed a spike in the number of accidents during the week after the clocks change, possibly due to the sudden interruption of people's sleeping patterns.
One certain good thing to come out of DST, however, happened in 1999, when a group of West Bank terrorists (on DST) delivered bombs to a cell in Israel (not on DST) but ignored the time difference when setting the timers for their bombs. The bombs went off one hour earlier than planned, killing three terrorists instead of the intended civilians.