Every year with the beginning of Daylight Savings I think about how it does not go far enough. I think Alaska should switch to Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) for the winter. As it is, by the end of this month most people will be going to work in the dark AND coming home in the dark. Daylight is too precious to waste it working - we need it for playing!
If we switched to EDT we'd all get up four hours earlier and still go to work in the dark but we'd also get about 3 hours of daylight after work. I bet we'd get used to the extreme time change in just a few days. And think of the benefits. People who work in the financial business would be able to better coordinate with Wall Street. Our vote would actually mean something in national elections. But best of all everyone would get a chance to spend some quality time outside in the daylight. I bet this would help with the 'winter blues' and people would certainly reap the benefits of more exercise. People would not go home with nothing better to do than watch TV, drink a beer and kill time in the dark until bedtime. Right now that is exactly what far too many people do. I bet if Alaska did go on EDT for the winter that the state would see immediate health benefits. Far more benefits than the state reaps with all the expensive programs they try now to get people to exercise and eat better. And simply changing the time would would cost nothing.
Photo: Ayakulik River at dawn, a familiar time of day to Alaskans on their way to work. Patrick
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