For five years, Brazilians have lived under the kind of temporary tranquility that many Americans have long coveted. No clock changes, no schedule confusion: the much-maligned daylight saving time was banished by presidential decree.
“Daylight saving time, never again!” former President Jair Bolsonaro, who signed the order, once said.
It turns out that Practice is not defeated so easily.
After several energy emergencies, and with the prospect of more to come as the effects of the climate changedefeated daylight saving time suddenly looks much better than it once did to some in the Brazilian government.
At the end of last year, the authorities were on the verge of imposing the return of daylight saving time –a calendar period in which clocks are moved forward to make the most of seasonal daylight– to save energy in the middle of a historic drought that had threatened hydroelectric power generation and skyrocketed electricity bills. The Government is already laying the political foundations to reestablish it this year.
“I want to highlight my defense of daylight saving time as a policy for the country,” Alexandre Silveira, Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, declared in October.
People and governments around the world have the same debate, often reaching contradictory conclusions.
Countries such as Azerbaijan, Mexico and Samoa have abolished daylight saving time. Jordan, Namibia and Türkiye, on the other hand, have opted for permanent daylight saving time. And Russia, discovering that there is no way to tell time that will satisfy everyone, first tried permanent daylight saving time and then scrapped it.
The United States has also been embroiled in a melodrama for years. According to a 2022 Monmouth University poll, most Americans want a change in the schedule, but they can’t agree on what it should be. A plurality want permanent daylight saving time, while 13% prefer perpetual “standard time,” when clocks are turned back.
President-elect Donald Trump appears as divided as the United States on this issue.
“Making daylight saving time permanent sounds good to me!” he tweeted in 2019.
“Eliminate daylight saving time,” he said in 2024.
After Brazil eliminated daylight saving time in 2019, life, if not weather, continued largely unchanged. But it was also stranger.
In it southeastdensely populated, the sky begins to lighten at the inordinate hour of 4:30 am during the summer, and by 8 am, it seems like high noon. On the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, it never seems too early to worry about sunburn.
People, as usual, have complained on social media.
“It’s already clear at 5:19 in the morning,” one person said. “I miss daylight saving time.”
“I miss daylight saving time,” said another.
“For the love of God, it’s not even 8 in the morning and there’s already a solzão na minha cara”, a big sun on my face, complained a third.
But as the years went by, more and more Brazilians began to think differently. Some prefer to live without daylight saving time, especially those who travel long distances and are no longer forced to leave home in the dark.. About a quarter of Brazilians, according to a study published in the Annals of Human Biology, reported feeling uncomfortable during daylight saving time. Polls showed that he ultimately lost majority support.
“It’s great for everyone,” Bolsonaro rejoiced at the end of 2022. “Society has adapted to the end of daylight saving time, which annoyed the majority of the Brazilian population.”
“The change came forever”, promised the former president.
But the effects of climate change could undo that plan.
Latin America’s largest country is a global leader in green energy. A staggering 93% of its electricity comes from renewable sources, according to Brazil’s Chamber of Electrical Energy Marketing, the majority of which is hydroelectric power. However, this strength has also left it vulnerable to global warming. As temperatures have risen and devastating droughts have become more frequent, the country’s water reserves have become dangerously low at times, putting its main source of energy at risk.
In 2021, a prolonged drought depleted the country’s water reserves, causing an estimated 20% increase in electricity bills, according to the National Chamber of Electrical Energy. Then came last year’s drought, the worst in 70 years, and government officials began to look more seriously at saving daylight. The National Electrical System Operator published a report in September recommending a return to this practice, stating that would reduce energy consumption by a critical 3% and save tens of millions of dollars.
Silveira, the energy minister, said that month that the decision to eliminate daylight saving time had been an extravagance that Brazil could barely afford.
“It was massive irresponsibility, without any scientific basis,” said the head of Energy. “We live in a period of denial in Brazil in all aspects.”
José Sidnei Colombo Martini, electrical engineer at the University of São Paulo, declared to The Washington Post that the decision to end daylight saving time amounted to a “national bet on whether it will rain.”
And the bet is expected to become increasingly risky as the years go by.
“Brazil has always had a huge amount of water available compared to other countries – storing 12% of the planet’s surface – but this is changing”said Suely Araújo, public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory. Estimates show that “we could have a 40% reduction in our water availability in Brazil’s main hydroelectric regions by 2040.”
“Brazil has entered a new reality,” he said.
On a sunny afternoon in the beachside Ipanema neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, people were trying to get acquainted with this new reality, in which climate change has become such a force that it could even dictate how the clock is set. of the country.
Ernnan Bita, 36, said he would welcome the return of daylight saving time. He said he had spent the last five years missing that extra bit of sunlight at the end of the day, that “feeling like you could do anything” when work was done. “Unfortunately, he didn’t come back this year, but I hope he does next year.”
Nearby, Bruna Mendonça, 37, the nanny in charge of her ward, shook her head.
“Thank God he hasn’t come back,” he said. “I have to leave for work at 5 in the morning. Imagine going out and waiting at the bus stop without lights. Brazil is dangerous”.
Claudinho Oliveira, a 50-year-old DJ selling vinyl records in a green tank top, was more circumspect. He said the issue of daylight saving time was beyond any one person. It’s about the future of the planet. You have to conserve as much energy as possible. He doesn’t think it’s that difficult to change the clock twice a year.
“Anything we can do to help the planet is a great achievement,” he said.
© 2024, The Washington Post.
