819
Spain restarts push to kill daylight saving time in EU (www.politico.eu)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/europe@feddit.org
195 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 68 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Years ago, the EU parliament decided to abandon DST - with a vast majority. They sent it to the governments as "Homework" to determine whether to keep Summer- or Standard Time. Nothing came out of it.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 34 points 10 months ago

    The EU parliament didn't vote to abandon DST, they voted for letting countries decide if they want to do DST or if they want to stick to one time zone. Apparently most countries decided to stick with DST.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] -3 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    They should obviously keep standard time. No one wants light at 10pm!!!

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 14 child comments
    •
  • [–] 33 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    I would 100% rather light at 10pm than 4am where it's totally wasted.

    Current light breakdown in Ireland over the year:

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I always forget how far north a lot of Europe is. The fact Dublin is further north than most Canadian major cities throws me for a loop

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah it's one of those weird map oddities that's more noticeable on a globe.

    We are mega fucked here if the gulf of Mexico ever stops sending us that warm water goodness.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago*

    It's actually the Atlantic Ocean arm of the Oceanic Conveyor Belt bringing to Europe warm waters from Africa.

    The only relation with the Gulf Of Mexico is that the western side of that current (which goes in the opposite direction, so North -> South, along the Eastern Northern and Southern America) passes alongside it.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Literally the plot of "The Day after Tomorrow" although the movie is ridiculously over the top of course

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago*

    DST basically robs you of useful outdoors time in summer. Want to spend some time outside after work? You can’t because of the scorching hot sun. Thanks to DST it’s time for bed by the time it has cooled down enough to be outside. Of course by then it’s still too hot to sleep so you’re fucked anyway. By the time it has cooled down enough to sleep it’s almost time to get up again.

    If we want to move the clock then we should move it backwards in summer instead of forwards. That way we get more time in the evening where it’s nice to be outdoors, we get to sleep when it has cooled down a bit more. In the morning the sun would be up earlier but blackout curtains solve that issue, and temperature lags behind the sun anyway so we get to sleep in the least hot part of the night.

    DST is the worst invention ever.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    You live in the western end of your time zone, and at a pretty high latitude. That's the only way to get sunset after 10pm. Your summer sunrise must be about 3am. And you must only see about 5 hours of daylight during winter.

    If you are experiencing sunset 2 hours before midnight, the eastern end of your time zone is experiencing sunrise two hours after midnight. Nobody wants sunrise at 2am.

    I would say that you should not be in your time zone. Your region should be in the next time zone to the west. Their DST schedule is your standard time schedule.

    Alternatively, there is nothing stopping the eastern end of your time zone from joining the next zone to the east, so that their year-round clocks make more sense for them.

    Any viable plan to lock the clocks is going to have to include provisions for our regions to select the time zone we want to use.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

    They don't have to be far west for sunset at 22 (with DST as I think you missed), just far enough north. With 6 hours of night in the summer, the centre of the timezone will have nighttime from 22 to 4.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    "far enough north" for this effect is above 59Β° latitude, and doesn't include places like Iceland that don't observe DST. The population density above 59Β° is a rounding error above zero.

    The only place to reach it in the southern hemisphere is Antarctica itself and a few islands.

    Their votes and opinions certainly count, but the rest of the world should not be forced to use a bad time system just to appease the very few who live that high. Especially when they have other alternatives available to resolve their problem.

    The overwhelming majority of people who experience this effect of DST are on the west end of their current time zones at a much lower latitude.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    "far enough north" for this effect is above 59Β° latitude

    What are you on about? I’m at 52ΒΊ North and from May 20th until the 25th of July there is no night at all. Best we get is about 3 hours of astronomical twilight.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (1 child)

    What you have to realise is that according to them, half of Europe is a rounding error when it comes to discussing Europe specific problems.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    It is a bit more complicated. Back in the time (no pun intended) they made a mess by putting most of Europe in one time zone, from west of Spain to east of Poland. Which is 9Β° west to 28Β° east, more than 2 and a half time zones. Technically, Europe should split into at least two time zones. And this is going to be a mess.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent