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Replacing time zones with UTC
Various proposals have been made to replace the system of
time zones
with
Coordinated Universal Time
(UTC) as a local time.
History
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For most of history, the position of the sun was used for timekeeping. During the 19th century, most towns kept their own local time. The standardization of time zones started in 1884 in the US.
[1]
Proposals
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Arthur C. Clarke
proposed the use of a single time zone in 1976.
[2]
Attempts to abolish time zones date back half a century
[1]
and include the
Swatch Internet Time
.
Economics
professor
Steve Hanke
and
astrophysics
professor
Dick Henry
at
Johns Hopkins University
have been proponents of the concept and have integrated it in their
Hanke?Henry Permanent Calendar
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Usage
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UTC as a universal time zone is already used by airline operators around the world
[7]
and other international settings where time coordination is especially critical. This includes military operations, the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
and the
International Space Station
.
[8]
Within the United States, some have cited effective international use of UTC in certain industries as evidence that a permanent national time zone would work within the United States, a change the
Secretary of Transportation
would have the authority to make.
[8]
Advantages
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- The same time is used globally, which removes the requirement of calculations between different zones.
- Possible health benefits as people who live on the eastern side of a time zone are out of sync with the
circadian rhythms
.
[1]
[9]
Disadvantages
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- The date will change during daylight hours in parts of the
Americas
and
Asia-Pacific
.
- Requires changes in linguistic terminology related to time.
- Conceptually, time zones would still be in effect as different regions would still carry out activities such as
business hours
,
lunch
,
school
, etc. at different UTC times, essentially trading one system for a tantamount one.
For example, at 08:00 (8 AM), with UTC-0 as a worldwide standard, the sky in the Eastern
United States
would look how it normally does at 03:00 (3 AM), and in
China
would look how it does at 16:00 (4 PM). However, in the
United Kingdom
, the sky would look the exact same as it normally does at 08:00 (8 AM).
See also
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References
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