Unless I misunderstood the content of the daylight saving time (DST) letter 180 degrees [“Daylight Savings Fallacy” by Reed Bard, published in the March 13–19 edition of “The Readers’ Turn”], it’s disappointing that the topic was given space in “The Readers’ Turn,” displacing other, more significant letters from readers that were not published. Daylight saving time, in its present form, is nonsense in today’s world, because the central premise of its adoption is nonsense. One more hour of daylight is the wrong parameter used to justify it.
A more appropriate and meaningful parameter to decide on time changes or no time changes is improving the average temperature profile during the eight-hour play/work day. This would mean a warmer average temperature in wintertime (when the weather is colder) and a cooler average temperature in summertime (when the weather is warmer). The present form of DST does the opposite. This implies that maintaining standard time year-round is better.
John Fiscella
California
