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Daylight Saving Time

Context: Recently Lebanon was thrown into mass confusion  after its government at the last minute delayed the start of daylight saving time by a month.

What is daylight saving time?

• According to Norway-based Time and Date, daylight saving time (DST) is the practice of setting the clocks forward one hour from the standard time during the summer and back again in the autumn.
• This is done to make better use of natural daylight. India does not follow daylight saving time as countries near the Equator do not experience high variations in daytime hours between seasons.

What happened in Lebanon?

• Lebanon usually sets its clocks forward an hour in March. However, its caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati Thursday said this year, the clocks would be reset on April 21.
• While no reason was given, a leaked video shows Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urging Mikati to postpone DST to allow Muslims to break their Ramzan fast an hour earlier.
• The confusion was created as some institutions, including Christian churches, reset their clocks despite Mikati’s decision.
• Thus, airlines, cellphone operators, schools, workplaces, etc., are no longer following the same time.

What happened in Greenland?

• Greenland reset its clocks but will leave them undisturbed when daylight saving time ends in autumn.
• Another hour of daylight in the afternoons would give them more time to do business with Europe and farther afield.

Why was this practice adopted?

• According to Time and Date, on July 1, 1908, “the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario—today’s Thunder Bay—turned their clocks forward by one hour to start the world’s first DST period.
• Other locations in Canada soon followed suit.” The idea caught on globally after Germany and Austria introduced DST on April 30, 1916, to minimise the use of artificial lighting and save fuel during World War I.

Today, many argue that with most appliances consuming energy running at all hours of the day, DST has lost relevance. Some studies have also shown that disruption of the body clock due to the DST has adverse health effects.