#Global time zones how to

Time zones have been leveraged as a political tool throughout history (something Hanke and Henry argue the introduction of Universal Time could put a stop to). This has been politically weaponised in the past, with a Uighur man detained in 2018 for having his watch set to local time. While the Han Chinese, who make up the majority of the population, go by Beijing time, the Uighur Muslim population follows a вЂlocal timeвЂ™ that is set two hours ahead. This is most extreme in the western province of Xinjiang for example, and is a touchpoint for political tensions. вЂњTheir lives are three or four hours off of local solar time,вЂќ says Brunn. A lack of locally adapted official hours for work and school means that those furthest from Beijing get up in darkness, or head to bed while itвЂ™s still light. Despite this, there is only one Beijing Time, first instituted by the Communist Party to stimulate a sense of national unity. China spans five time zones, meaning the western end of the country trails the east by about four hours.

вЂњSo we should all be setting our watches exactly at the same place.вЂќ So far, so convincing.Д«ut what would this look like in practice? Both China and India, vast countries that span a number of FlemingвЂ™s time zones, have only one standard time вЂ“ perhaps providing a test case for what universal time could look like. вЂњWe are all at the same time right now,вЂќ says Hanke. At present, global time set to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) is already used by airline pilots вЂ“ for obvious reasons вЂ“ and international finance and trade, to make sure that transactions are made at the same time. If itвЂ™s 9pm in London, it should be 9pm in Canberra too, the argument goes. Hanke and HenryвЂ™s answer to all this confusion is a single time zone for the entire world.

Is the fact that time zones make very little sense reason enough to scrap them? To pull up some particularly egregious examples: Russia has 11, while China has only one Nepal is the only place in the world where the time is (inexplicably) set to quarter past the hour, while two in Australia are set to the half hour Spain abides by Central European Time (CET) despite being geographically in line with the UK, meaning its citizens suffer a form of constant social jetlag вЂ“ meaning their daily schedule isn't consistent with their biological clocks. The year before, both Kazakhstan and a state in Russia decided to switch time zones permanently.Д«ut even without this interminable flip-flopping, time zone quirks exist the world over. Take the amount of time-tweaking that went on in the past year: aside from much DST-related dissent in countries like Australia and the US, Morocco put its clocks back for one month during Ramadan 2019 (despite deciding to scrap seasonal time adjustments in 2018), SГЈo TomГ© and PrГncipe, the African island nation, decided to change its clocks back to GMT after switching to West Africa Time (WAT) a year earlier.

#Global time zones how to

France continued to use a Paris-based meridian anyway for nearly three more decades for its own empire.ItвЂ™s something we donвЂ™t really think about, yet time and how to manage is a fairly contentious and historically troublesome topic. Greenwich was set as the global standard for universal time coordination at the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C.ДЎ1. Before standardization, every world power with overseas colonies or territories had its own вЂњprime meridianвЂќ running through its own capital or other major city from the North Pole to the South Pole.ДЎ0. Today, the United Kingdom still has nine time zones, nearly all of which are due to island territories outside of Europe.Д©. The reason why the Prime Meridian passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England is due to the old British EmpireвЂ™s global span across virtually all time zones.ДЁ. It has been on this time zone since the 1940-44 German occupation began.Д§. But instead France is one hour ahead, largely to maintain economic ties to the rest of continental Europe. вЂњMetropolitan France,вЂќ the main area of France located on the European continent, could use Greenwich Mean Time, since the prime meridian passes through France.Д¦. France also has departments or territories in South America, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.ДҐ. Nine Time Zones: A Trace of American Empire?Д¬hina and India: The Single Time-Zone KingsД¤.