With Daylight Saving Time right around the corner, a study was conducted to see how Croatians really felt about turning the clocks backward. In a sample of over 1,500 respondents from the whole of Croatia who belong to different age groups, environments and levels of education, 85% recorded the need to abolish Daylight Saving Time in Croatia.
For a long time in the scientific community and the general public, there has been a debate about the positive and negative aspects of Daylight Saving Time. India, Japan and China are some of the countries that do not use this method. More recently, Russia and Turkey abolished this practice, and now an increasing number of countries around the world call into question the effectiveness of Daylight Saving Time. Croatia, as well other states of the European Union, are legally regulated for Daylight Saving Time.
In the office of MEPs, Davor Škrlec spent the 12 to 19 of October 2016 recording an online survey on the topic of whether such practices should be kept or terminated in Croatia, reports Poslovni.hr.
In a sample of over 1,500 respondents for all of Croatia who belong to different age groups, environments and levels of education, 85% of them reported that they felt Daylight Saving Time in Croatia should be abolished.
In addition, 68% of them stated that they considered that the change in the calculation of time affects the health of people and animals. In the survey, 73% experienced discomfort from moving the clocks, 51% reported health problems, 37% reported problems with transport and 57% reported difficulties in carrying out daily obligations. Comments from the respondents further indicated that changes in the calculation of time adversely affected the biorhythm in adults and in children, leading to inefficiency in the exercise of business. Some of the respondents even pointed out visible disturbances in biological rhythms in domestic animals. The study also found that about the same number of respondents believe that the changes influence (42%) and do not influence (47%) energy consumption.
“The main reason for having Daylight Saving Time in history was for saving the main energy source of coal. Today we can no longer argue that changes compute a positive impact on saving energy. Due to Daylight Saving Time, people run inflamed climate devices in the summer and early heating in the fall, which contributes to increased energy consumption. It is becoming clear that the total savings are minor and insignificant, as opposed to in the past when we were not experienced in this kind of technological development. It is clear that today we live in a different time and we therefore need new and different ways of saving energy. For these reasons, we should take into account the opinion of citizens, as well as the opinion of experts and scientists. Croatia should judiciously choose what is best for us in the near future, both in economic and in environmental terms,” explains Škrlec.
Recently, demands for the abolition of Daylight Saving Time can be heard in the European Union, and in the wake of this, MEPs will discuss the potential harms and benefits of such a practice on Thursday, 27 October at the plenary session in Strasbourg.
