[Info-vax] EU will abandon daylight savings time in 2021

[Mark Berryman]

On 4/13/19 9:45 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 4/13/19 11:18 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 4/6/2019 3:11 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> According to the website I just checked sunrise in PA on the
>>>>> longest day of the years is 5:40.
>>>>
>>>> OK 5:40. Without DST that would be 4:40.
>>>
>>> No, it's 5:40 and with DST it's 6:40.
>>
>> It is 5:40 EDT with DST in place and that is 4:40 EST without DST.
>>
>> Check the table.
> 
> Must be looking at different tables because mine gave the hours
> of daylight in real time, not DST.
> 
>>
>> Or just look out the window in the morning - it is 6:31 with DST
>> tomorrow and still more than 2 months to midsummer day.
> 
> And still dark here.  I get up by 6:30 AM every day.  And on
> cloudy days (which seem to make up the majority any more) it
> stays darker even later.  And my wife has already left for work
> buy then so she got  up at least an hour before the sun.  I think
> it's a safe bet that everyone else who lives out here in the
> "suburbs" and works in the city gets up before the sun.  And we
> haven't even addressed the thousands who live here, work in NYC
> and have a two hour commute.  What time do you think they get up?
> And then we have the farmers.  Cows to milk. Fields to tend. I
> don't see them sleeping until 9:00 AM either.  For the 25 years
> I worked at the University before my final retirement I got up
> and left for work before the sun came up.  I am sure that is
> not unique.  And just about the time sunrise started to catch
> up with my work schedule DST would kick in making it dark once
> again.  I do  like having the later sun.  When I was in Georgia
> for 6 months thru the summer of 2008 I was able to get off
> work and still play golf because that far south it stayed
> light until after 7:00 PM.  But it was still dark when I got
> up and dark when I went to bed.  I saved no candles.

Daylight savings is not now, nor has it ever been, about when you get up 
in the morning or when you retire for the evening.  It has always been 
about making the greatest amount of sunlight available to the greatest 
number of people at a time when they can most make use of it or, to put 
it more simply, it has been about conserving energy (e.g. for most of 
the 100-odd years it has been in use, more people have needed to turn on 
lights in evening hours than needed to in the morning hours so shifting 
sundown to an hour later in the evening made sense).

Now, today's energy use patterns may relegate that energy-saving 
argument to history, but it certainly made sense to Germany in WW1 and 
to the US in WW2.  In fact, DST was in use year round in the US for most 
of WW2.  With the lifestyle patterns most people show today, perhaps it 
is time to revisit that thought.

Mark Berryman