Latest / PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast / Daylight Saving Time: Interview with Dr. Maya Wei-Haas

Transcript

Daylight Saving Time: Interview with Dr. Maya Wei-Haas · PlanetGeo: The Geology Podcast

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome to Planet Geo, the podcast where we talk about our amazing planet, how it works, and why it matters to you.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome to Planet Geo.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_05: Today we are really happy to release a preview to an interview with Dr.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_05: Maya Wey Haas, who's a science journalist for National Geographic.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_05: We've really been excited to interview a bunch of science journalists recently.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_05: Dr.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_05: Wehaas has a particular affection for rocks and reactions.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_05: She got her PhD in Earth Science from the Ohio State University, has won several awards for excellence in science journalism in the last couple years.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_05: And our preview discussion today focuses on many things, but one of them is daylight saving time.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_05: And daylight saving time is really an interesting thing right now.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_05: We just, in the US and many parts of the United States, we just leapt forward in time.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_05: And actually, 19 United States states have ballot agendas that are focused on daylight saving time, either going permanently to daylight saving time or going back to normal time.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so our discussion with Dr.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_05: Wey Haas is a really interesting one and very timely.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_05: Tune in next week for the full interview with Dr.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_05: Wey Haas.
• 1:13
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• 1:16
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• 1:18
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• 1:25
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• 1:29
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• 1:31
  SPEAKER_05: Enjoy.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, Myas, we've read a lot of these.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_05: And actually, I subscribe to National Geographic Digital because after going through your things at your articles, I was like, oh man, there's so much good stuff here.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_05: I gotta subscribe for like the first the yearly rate or whatever.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_05: So you know you can pass that along that you're you're bringing in new new uh new subscribers.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_05: But um you wrote uh I think a suite of articles on daylight savings time, and those were really interesting.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_05: I kind of want to hear your take on daylight savings time and like whether it's useful.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_05: It always annoys me when it's in the winter time, it gets dark so early, living on the eastern uh seaboard kind of.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_05: Uh can you describe these things and and maybe if you're willing to weigh in on daylight savings time and whether it's worth anything these days?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um to preface, I always add the S to this, so apologies if I do that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's technically daylight saving time, but it's I can't.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, right.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I I did the same thing, didn't I?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_05: Daylight saving time.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_05: You did.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's dang it.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know, but I say it too, always.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_05: I even made a note in my notes.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_05: Don't say daylight savings, Jesse.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_05: You'll sound like an idiot, but but you did it anyway.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, I wasn't trying to call you out because I'm pretty sure I'll do it too.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: But um, and anything in the graphic of that, like we had to fix one, because I wrote it like on a sticky note, I'm pretty sure on my computer because I kept forgetting while I was writing it.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, it's a bad habit.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so uh daylight saving time.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it is a pain in the butt.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess to give a short summary of that article, I mean, we're all familiar with the time changes, the biannual time changes.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have sort of the when the northern hemisphere in the summertime it's tipping towards the sun.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we have longer, longer and warmer days, and the southern hemisphere has its shorter days and then it switches in the winter time.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: So when coal still ruled everything, daylight saving time was implemented as a way to maximize their daylight hours because I believe it was during World War I, they were switching the clocks so that they didn't have to use their resources quite as much during the times that they're awake.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it made maybe sense.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um at the time, I think it's debatable.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: And these days, because we live in a 24-7 world, there's just we don't have that kind of energy saving anymore.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: But of course, change is slow here, and we still have hung out to work.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's hard.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: So whether I'm for or against, I like falling back.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love getting an extra hour.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's like the high level.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: So but the problem is scientists think that there are some health impacts to some degree of changing time.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I've seen studies arguing it both ways.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_05: So, what were the health impacts?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's some mention of, I believe there was one study that was like even just not even talking about where you are in the year, whether you're changing it forward or back, but changing your clock affects your your sleep cycles.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so there was a study that linked an increased rate of car accidents during the month, I believe, or the week.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I'm not remembering specifically, but during the period when the time change happened, there were higher rates of car accidents.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: There are other people who have like given anecdotal evidence of like when they who have chronic illnesses and those illnesses have gotten worse during those periods, because in general, when your sleep cycles are disrupted, there are a lot of things that get worse.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a challenge to change it though, because there are actually like apparently there's a golf and barbecue lobby.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like they they were saying that they they wanted daylight saving time because it boosts their profits.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: There when there's sunlight in evening hours versus morning hours, and people are going out to, you know, it just so it makes it tough.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um I have to clarify, do you want us to fall back permanently or go forward permanently?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't know.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when reporting this, actually, I was I really thought about it a lot of which I would prefer.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I honestly am not sure because after I get over the the period in which I'm grumbling about the time change, I do appreciate having light in the morning.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's hard to get up and not, you know, in darkness.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: But then again, at the end of the day, I hate coming out and it's dark in the afternoon.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_05: So you're sort of in the DC region, like on the East Coast, it gets dark so quickly.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_05: It does so early.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's really grim.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: But like, I think the thing is though, that regardless of whether I want one or the other, I think that it's easier to stay on.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I might be getting this wrong.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: I believe it's easier to say we're just gonna not do the daylight saving time and abolish it, because there's some clause in the law that says like if you can get a large enough number of people or states to agree, then they will all do it.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like, there was there was some agreement at some point that a bunch of states were like, oh, well, if all of you pass this, then we'll do it for this entire area.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's it'll start to get confusing if like one state decides to opt out and then another state decides to stay the other way.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like it it you really want to be able to coordinate, you don't want to draw drive across state lines and constantly have the costs change.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_05: So for sure.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, okay.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: Interesting.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we had this when we went to the Grand Canyon.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: Arizona's that way.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, if you can imagine then, well, what if someone decides to stay on to stay daylight saving time year round, and then the other one decides to stay and like two hours difference?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like what?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good point.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we need we need coordination.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um I just to coordinate that number of people.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: There are some people out there with there's a few websites actually that they're fighting the good fight and trying to stand, you know, try to track all these things and take stand their ground.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I think it's gonna be a tough thing um to get to get on the table.
• 7:48
  unknown: Okay.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_05: Well, we might be stuck with it.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_04: So you wrote an article about the most dangerous volcanoes according to the I think it was the USGS.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_04: What struck you most about that list?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So my response to this is slightly embarrassing, but going for it.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: Go ahead.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_04: Jesse does that to himself all the time.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: So feel free.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so I think I've only realized in the past few years how many volcanoes there actually are in the United States.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_05: I only realized it two weeks ago when we were talking to uh Tina Neal.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_05: It's amazing.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of them.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So many.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's crazy.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I just take for granted that they're asleep, like that they're not gonna do anything.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I it just so yeah, I mean, in general, I think that the that whole article, writing that whole article was like, wow, I'm really not, I just I'm really not paying attention enough.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I think they still pose risk.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: They're they might be sort of inactive at this point, but that doesn't mean that they're gonna be inactive in the future.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think it really showed or like underscored in my brain why it is so important for the USGS to have funding and support for monitoring.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think a lot of time it's really tough to get these sorts of long-term projects, things like monitoring or even studying ecologic systems as they rebound that sort of thing.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Long-term observations, I believe, it's uh my understanding is they're not always the easiest things to get funded in science because they don't have the immediate kind of payoff.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're not sort of discovery aha.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't know what you're gonna find until you go and sit there for many years and monitor this thing.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that it just it really shows why those things are so important.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_05: All right, thanks for listening.
• 9:45
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• 9:49
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• 9:50
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• 9:53
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• 10:01
  SPEAKER_04: That's the best for sure.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: Alright, check in next week.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_05: Cheers.