Russia changes with daylight saving time
For example, in Russia, daylight saving time was first introduced in 1917 by the provisional government and abandoned by decree of the Soviet government five months later. It was reintroduce in April 1981 until in 2011, and then President Dmitry Medvedev announce its cancellation. Already in the 2012 campaign Vladimir Putin spoke of returning to daylight saving time, although he finally decided not to start it.
The time change in the United States
In North America, they change the time in the United States, Canada and Mexico, except for some areas. This is the case of Arizona and Hawaii, in the United States. Also from Sonora, in Mexico and Saskatchewan, in Canada.
The curious case of the time change in Arizona
Most of Arizona, with the exception of the territory that is part of the Navajo Nation, is govern by what is known as Mountain Standard Time (MST), throughout the year. The time zone is -7 with respect to the Greenwich meridian (UTC-7).
Arizona does not follow DST under the US Energy Policy Act of 2005. Under this rule, every state or territory has the right to decide whether or not to be part of DST.
If a State (like most of those that make up the United States) follows the DST, it has to adapt to the rest of the country. That is: from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
The root cause for Arizona to remain outside of DST(daylight saving time) is because it is deemed unnecessary. The argument for not extending daylight hours in the afternoon is that people prefer to do their activities in lower temperatures once the sun has gone down.
The Navajo Nation does follow DST
The only exception in Arizona that observes daylight saving time is the Navajo Nation. It is a territory with limited autonomy and self-government within the United States. It is populate by Native Americans and covers an area of 71,000 km2.
In addition to occupying large portions of northeastern Arizona, the Navajo State also encompasses southeastern Utah and northwestern New Mexico. It is the largest area of land purchase by a tribe in the United States.
It is manage through agreements with the country’s Congress. Its institutions include a judicial system, extensive law enforcement, and certain social services.
There is no DST in the Hopi Nation
A portion of the Hopi Nation, which is nestle within the Navajo Nation, does not follow DST, as does the rest of Arizona.
But to make everything more convoluted, there is an even smaller territory of the Navajo Nation within the Hopi Nation (see map above). There, summer time is observe. Additionally, there is another Hopi area adjacent to the mainland of the Hopi Nation that does not follow DST.
The towns of Tuba City (Navajo) and Moenkopi (Hopi) are less than 4 kilometers away. But they have a time difference of one hour during the summer. Jeddito (Navajo), in the middle of Hopi Nation territory, is an hour ahead of surrounding areas during the summer.
Latin America: different realities with the DST
In Latin America, DST is observe by Paraguay, Chile, and southern Brazil. Venezuela, Suriname, Guiana and French Guiana have never used it.
But the rest of the Latin American countries have gone through DST at some point in their history, usually during the oil crisis. For example, Argentina stopped using DST in 2009 and has subsequently only made time changes in some regions to save energy.
DST in Asia and Oceania
In Asia, China experimented with DST from 1986, but abandoned it in 1992. Malaysia used it from 1933, but stopped using it in 1981. South Korea used it in two periods, 1955–1960 and 1987–1988. Turkey, Iraq and Azebaijan also change their time. The same is true in the Middle East with Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
In Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia – in total less than half of the country’s area – do change time. In Oceania, also in New Zealand and in Papua New Guinea they change the clock.
The time change in Africa
In Africa, only Morocco and part of Western Sahara observe daylight saving time. Most of the continent has never used it.
Namibia used the time change from 1994 to August 2017, although the government ended up abolishing it after conducting a survey, as has the European Union.
In that survey, 88% of the Namibians consulted were against the time change. Companies were also against it, because of the difficulties it posed, especially in trade with South Africa, its main trading partner, which does not follow DST.
