EU plans to abolish daylight saving time and make summer last forever

[question everything]

Source: CNN

The European Union is to propose ending twice-yearly clock changes after a large-scale public survey, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday. According to Juncker, more than 80% of EU citizens want to abolish daylight saving time and instead remain on the time used during summer instead. At the moment, each EU member state puts clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday of March and back again on the last Sunday in October.

(snip)

For any change to go into effect, legislation must be drafted and win approval from the 28 member nations and the European Parliament.
One of the chief critics of daylight saving time has been Finland, which has one of the most northerly capital cities in the EU.
Over 70,000 Finns signed a petition last October to urge the government to move away from daylight saving time.


Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/31/europe/eu-abolish-daylight-saving-time-intl/index.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Nixon tried this in 1973-74.

I hated walking to high school in the dark and watching the sun slowly rise during 8:00 Algebra.

[Dave Starsky]

9. It depends on where you live.

If you live at the edge of a time zone and either far north or south within that zone, it will make a huge difference as opposed to someone who is more centrally located within that zone and latitude.

I was also one of those kids that walked to school in the dark. I didn't know that there were people in this country who weren't having to do that based on where they were located.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. The problem was that DST went into effect in January

which unless you live closer to/along/below the equator, that is a period of the year when the nights are much longer than the days.

[Dave Starsky]

20. I forgot about that part.

Yes, the time of year also makes a big difference in how these changes are accepted. There is that aspect, as well.

[lagomorph777]

12. I think we're the same age.

God that sucked. Especially since it was COLD and dark in the Northern town I grew up in.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. I also remember that mess in '73 - had to walk to the train for school with a flashlight

Caught the "7:40 express" commuter train going downtown for school and it was dark walking to the train station after Nixon had DST moved to January (sun was finally coming up by the time we got downtown and exited the station to catch the bus to complete the trip to school).

[pnwmom]

17. And I hate it in the winter here when it's dark at 4:30. It all depends where you live. n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

22. But if you move it so that it is 5:30 for when it gets dark in the afternoon

it'll be pitch black in the morning - particularly for kids who have to go to school.

If you look at some of the most southern cities like Miami, the January sunrise is ~7 am. Making it DST year round will mean that sunrise will be ~8 am there and it will be worse (i.e., even later) the further north you go.

Here in Philly at latitude 40N, we are about 22 minutes later than Miami for sunrise so the sun wouldn't be rising until ~8:20-something in the morning if it were year-round DST.

[pnwmom]

28. During year-round DST,

I didn't mind it being darker later in the morning as long as we had some light to look forward to after school or work. Having it be dark by the time we got home was depressing.

And I live way north of Miami.

[Dopers_Greed]

2. I absolutely hate being on summer time

I work with Japan, so I have to work an hour later at least every day during summer due to the time change.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

27. I know how you feel.

I hated the conference calls with China, had to stay late at work.

I liked the conference calls with Spain, Brazil, and Germany, always early in the morning, then I'd knock off work early. Unless my day ended with another conference call with China.

DST forever!

[LandOfHopeAndDreams]

3. Only A Matter Of Time For Us

Drumpf already said that he is willing to do away with daylight saving time. Wouldn't surprise me if he does so during the final 2 years of his term.

With the pace of Mueller's investigation, I think Drumpf will manage to finish out his term, so still another 29 months of damage.

[question everything]

30. Can he do it? Isn't it up to Congress?

Or is this part of "I alone.."

[whistler162]

4. Everyone knows there are only

[BumRushDaShow]

23. But then what did you do during that?

[yonder]

5. Good move IMO, I like having more light at the end of the day.

[Adrahil]

8. Hey, let's just move the time zones!

The sun can come up around noon and go down late in the evening!

Nah... going to work in the dark sucks.

[obamanut2012]

6. We want to do this in Florida

Congress has to approve it now -- I doubt they will, alas.

[ToxMarz]

10. Regardless, summer already lasts forever in Florida

[brooklynite]

7. I would love us to do the same...

[lagomorph777]

11. Good idea because global warming is making summer last forever, everywhere.

Might as well acknowledge reality.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. I want EST to remain EST. NO DST!

They have already taken enough away from me and I WANT MY HOUR BACK!!!!!!11111!!

(I do want it back dammit!)

[Bengus81]

32. LOL...reminds me of dumb ass farmers here who would bitch about the day being an hour longer....

When DST went into effect. Yup...we suddenly had a 25 hour day!!! Gawd...........

[BumRushDaShow]

34. That's because

they believed it when the Beatles sung about lovin' -

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. It seems to me if you're going to abolish

either daylight saving time or regular time, you should split the difference and go to the half hour which bridges things.


And yeah, I think there are too few people that recall what a genuine disaster the year round thing was.

Also, to everyone who complains so bitterly about the clock change twice a year, and can only conclude that the complainers have always lived in the same time zone and have never travelled more than one time zone from home.

I like the change. I like the late daylight in summer, the somewhat early daylight in the morning in winter. I just thing DST goes on much too long. It shouldn't start until April and should end the final weekend in September. Keeping it through Halloween is stupid, because the is already setting fairly early, and the trick-or-treaters are all out after dark. Heck, that's the best thing about Halloween when you're a little kid.

[pnwmom]

18. I loved year around DST. I strongly disagree with you about it being a "disaster."

I suspect the perspective has to do with where you live.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. There were several incidents of kids waiting for a school bus in the dark

who were struck by cars.

Yes, it does matter a great deal how for east or west in a time zone you are, as well as how far north and south.

It's bad enough that high schools start far too early in the morning for teens. It will be vastly worse if half of the school year significant numbers of them are going in the dark.

[pazzyanne]

24. I was just going to point this out.

I was teaching during that time. I taught near the Canadian border. We had horrific traffic jams around the school, buses had a hard time parking by the curb due to parents dropping their kids off, and the final straw was when we had an elementary student seriously injured by being struck by a car. Our school was not the only one to have children hit either. The school board moved the school start time one hour later after that accident happened.

[pnwmom]

29. Changing the school start time made perfect sense. There's no reason schools need to start at 7:30

or 8.

[csziggy]

21. Get rid of Daylight Savings Time - it causes drought!

Last edited Fri Aug 31, 2018, 06:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Daylight Saving Time Exacerbates Global Warming?

Since the first implementation of Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United State during World War I, jokes have abounded about people who mistakenly believed the springtime adjustment of clocks somehow created an “extra” hour of daylight (when all it did was shift the time of day that daylight hours occurred) or that it had a deleterious effect on crops and farm animals (who are oblivious to humans’ methods of keeping time). Now that stock of humor has been increased with the additional claim that the lengthened Daylight Saving Time period which was implemented in 2007 (when DST began three weeks earlier than in previous years and stayed in effect for an additional week longer in the fall) contributed to record high temperatures recorded across the U.S. in the late winter and early spring by producing a daily extra hour of “warming” daylight.

One such item quoted above was indeed published as a letter to the editor by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on 16 April 2007:

You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two.

This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they?

Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.

CONNIE M. MESKIMEN
Hot Springs

However, this missive was not intended to be taken literally, as its author, Connie Meskimen, is a Little Rock lawyer known for penning sarcastic letters with tongue planted firmly in cheek...

More: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/warming-trend/

Oh and then there is this one: https://www.facebook.com/AngryAmericanPolitics/photos/a.1105147336243313/1840615309363175/?type=3&theater

[world wide wally]

25. Wouldn't it be easier to start school one hour later than to change the clocks?

[question everything]

31. Yes. As it is there alreay discussions about stating school later

Kids don't get enough sleep when they have to be at school so early.

[Blues Heron]

26. We should go back to local time

Noon is when the sun is highest in the sky period. With computers and gps we could do this. Your phone would track your longitude and adjust the clock accordingly.

[Bengus81]

33. Nope,not at noon. In the central part of the US it's around 1:20-1:35 pm give or take with DST.

Today where I live the "meridian" or highest position of the sun is at 1:29pm. A couple months back it was around 1:35pm. So without DST I guess it would be around 12:35 most of the summer.