In three days
Chile
will turn all its clocks back one hour. And on this side of the Andes Mountains,
Julio Cobos
proposed to imitate them. To do so, the deputy of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) presented a project in the Chamber of Deputies with the objective of
readjusting Argentina's time zone,
with two key arguments:
energy savings
and
improvement in student learning.
.
The radical legislator revived the initiative that he promoted in 2022 in the Chamber of Deputies of Mendoza. Now, faced with the
adjustment panorama of the Government of Javier Milei
, he redoubled the bet: the folder officially arrived in Congress with the argument of savings in energy consumption.
"Argentina has a difference between the official time (-3) and the time zone that really corresponds to us (-4) and this causes several inconveniences. That is why I presented a project to modify the official time throughout the national territory and bring it to the time zone correct schedule," Julio Cobos remarked on social networks.
"Argentina is located almost entirely within the time zone 4 hours west of Greenwich, only the mountain area enters Zone -5; however we use the time zone -3. In addition, part of Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia "Venezuela and Chile today are in Zone -4," remarked the radical deputy.
🇦🇷 today has one of the biggest differences between solar time and official time, which affects not only electricity consumption but also school performance. We need to achieve a greater coincidence between solar time and official time.
Source: INAHE. pic.twitter.com/hjx0R9uUr5
— Julio Cobos (@juliocobos) April 6, 2022
"Education is one of the main sectors affected by the difference between solar time and official time. The vast majority of students in Argentina begin their day in complete darkness, producing a negative effect on their school performance. Currently in Mendoza, The clock time for the start of school activities is 8 in the morning, but in reality it corresponds to 6:30 solar time," argued the former governor of Mendoza.
In his argument, he cited a study by Conicet through the National Institute of Environment, Habitat and Energy (INAHE) and stated: "Argentina today has one of the largest differences between solar time and official time, which affects not only to electricity consumption but also to school performance. We need to achieve a greater coincidence between solar time and official time.
Argentina began to modify its time zone in 1930, when it adopted the -3 time zone for the summer, and the -4 time zone for the winter. The one who made it clear with examples and maps was the biologist and CONICET researcher,
Diego Golombek
.
9)If we count the summer-winter alternations... in Argentina we have changed the time zone about 57 times. pic.twitter.com/1QbSFWvL9T
— Diego Golombek (@DiegoGolombek) April 5, 2022
"If we count the summer-winter alternations, in Argentina we have changed the time zone about 57 times. The worst thing is clearly the alternation in summer to time zone -2: if we were already at the tip of Brazil, in the summer we were in the middle of the Atlantic. As some journalist said,
we were 'astonished', but not surprised, but in the Azores islands...
", Golombek published on social networks.
"Being in the right time zone for our place in the world means we are exposed to the right light for health, sleep and alertness," the scientist added.
The time zones of Argentina and the world
Time zones marked by the Greenwich meridian
Today, 27 countries in the European Union are obliged to change the time zone by European Directive 2000/84/EC, with the aim of increasing energy savings.
The world is divided into 24 zones. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, for Universal Time Coordinated) is the imaginary landmark used to establish the time in different countries and territories.
For this reason, a location can be three hours ahead or behind UTC. This is the case of Argentina, which has maintained, since 1969, the -3 time zone (three hours less than UTC).
When was the last time zone change in Argentina
The Greenwich Meridian passes through a school in London, England
Until 2009, to take advantage of sunlight and save energy, Argentina had a "summer time." This governed from November or December to February or March, a period during which the clocks had to be advanced to be in the -2 time zone.
During the last change, between October 2008 and March 2009, the zone was -2, except for the provinces of Catamarca, Chubut, Jujuy, La Pampa, La Rioja, Mendoza, NeuquĂ©n, RĂo Negro, Salta, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, which remained with -3.
This difference with the UTC is related to Law 26,350, enacted in 2007, which establishes the HOA in the -3 time zone during the winter and the -2 time zone during the summer. However, since 2009, winter time has been maintained throughout the year.