this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

There are good sides to DST, such as coming home “earlier” (by the sun clock but not by the social clock) from school or work and therefore having more hours of daylight during the free time after work. These positive effects may go beyond subjective feelings. A study has shown for example that activity increases with longer evening daylight (Goodman et al., 2014) – albeit with small biological effect sizes (≈6% difference in the daily activity between the Standard Time of the year and DST, adjusted for photoperiod). Interestingly these results of the above study were culture-specific: a significant increase was mainly observed in Europe and to some extent in Australia, while no significant effects or even slightly negative effects were seen in the United States and Brazil.

Fucking duh. This is the sticking point for me, and I am disappointed that the article doesn't mention the effect of latitude here. Very easy for muricans to say "DST is not useful" when these fuckers never get pitch-black night before 6pm or full daylight before 6am ST.

Brussels is on the same latitude as Calgary. ST robs every office worker of one hour of useful daylight. That's it. That's the whole argument for permanent DST. Businesses will not change their opening hours, so permanent ST means a net loss of one active hour in the day for every office worker. Permanent DST in Europe means someone working 9-6 would not have to drive home at night for 4 months of the year and could maybe even take the dog for a walk in the evening sun.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

You realize there are places without it, and they're fine, correct?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Not sure what you mean. My position is that daylight saving time should be abolished entirely. You linked an article about a push to move permanently on to daylight saving. I pointed out how that is actually a bad idea.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I just linked it to show the rare piece of bipartisanship. I agree DLST should be done away with. As to which schedule to keep, I find it to be 6 of one and half dozen of another. The difference is just another nit pick someone will find excuses to argue over.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

The difference is just another nit pick someone will find excuses to argue over

No, it isn't. The scientific research actually suggests that keeping DST is worse than switching back and forth. I have to admit I find that confusing, since a lot of the specific studies I've looked at concentrate on the effects caused by the switchover itself, but the meta-analysis doesn't mince words:

In summary, the scientific literature strongly argues against the switching between DST and Standard Time and even more so against adopting DST permanently.