The Need and Effects of Daylight Savings Time

Daylight Savings Time is the practice of advancing the clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. However, not every place on Earth practices the switch.Daylight Savings Time

The practice is to advance the clock an hour at the start of spring and turned back again sometime in autumn. In Europe (except Iceland and Georgia) this is done at the last week of March and last week of October, respectively. In the United States, it begins on the second Sunday of March and ends at the first Sunday of November. All except Hawaii and Arizona (except for Novajo).

Hawaii does not follow DST due to its location being in the tropical zone where day and night has almost the same equal time of length. This is true for almost every place in the tropical zone, like the Philippines. In the Philippines, DST was exercised only twice and that is for the purpose to minimize night time when the country is experiencing energy crisis.

In Australia, its three time zones becomes five from the first Sunday of October up to first Sunday of April. Seasons in the country are in reverse order being a South Hemisphere country. Citizens of Western Australia rejected the practice several times.

The topic is controversial. Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours and traffic fatalities are reduced when there is extra afternoon daylight. However, it causes problems for farming and evening entertainment. Other challenges it post is disruption of meetings, travels, billing, medical devices and sleep patterns. It complicates timekeeping and software applications are needed to be checked if they are adjusted automatically or not.

Posted by Nel
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