Let`s Save Daylight > 영어토론방

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It is welcome news that the government is considering introducing daylight saving time during the summer. Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook said earlier this week that the government would consider the system if a public consensus can be reached. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, which has already commissioned a research project, says the practice may start as early as 2008.

Moving the clock forward by one hour during the summer months will have a considerable impact on the national economy, as well as the daily lives of the population. A serious and sufficient debate is needed to discuss the proposal. It is hoped that the debate will be productive and help persuade opponents to recognize the benefits of making better use of daylight.

Korea had a daylight saving program from 1949-61, and again in 1987-88. The latter program was partly aimed at helping schedule the main events of the 1988 Seoul Olympics closer to the prime time television hours in the United States and Europe. That was one of the reasons some Koreans took a negative view of the program. Two recent surveys show that the Korean public is virtually split over the issue, with 41.8 percent to 46.6 percent in favor and 48 percent to 53.7 percent in opposition.

Opponents include workers and unions who argue that employees could end up working longer hours. They note that Korea`s corporate culture still does not allow employees to leave the office before their bosses, or while there is still sunlight. But things have changed for the better in many workplaces where a growing number of the younger generation are not bound by such practices any more.

Some also point to the inconvenience and confusion of changing clocks, adjusting to a new sleep schedule and a negative impact on a person`s biological clock. Compared with the benefits to the national economy and individual lifestyle, these are a mere nuisance.

The most important benefit of moving one sunny hour from the morning to the evening is energy conservation. It cuts electricity usage for lighting and appliances. A 1997 study by the Korea Energy Economics Institute found that daylight saving time during the summer would reduce the home consumption of electricity for lighting by 8.1 percent and electricity for air conditioning by 4.95 percent. The Japan Productivity Center said in 2004 that the introduction of a daylight saving program will save the country 930,000 kiloliters of oil, equivalent to the entire Japanese population turning off their TVs for 66 days. For a country like Korea that relies heavily on foreign imports for oil and other energy sources, energy conservation is an excellent argument for adopting a daylight saving scheme.

Utilizing longer daylight hours will help people live a more balanced life by giving them more time to spend with their family and for leisure activities. This will stimulate healthy consumer spending on activities like shopping and leisure. The same JPC study estimated that 100,000 new jobs and 970 billion yen in additional economic benefits would be generated by shopping and leisure as people take advantage of the brighter evenings.

Studies in the United States and Japan show that implementation of daylight saving brings about more public benefits, such as a decrease in traffic accidents and crime. Because of these and other merits, 86 countries are utilizing "summer time," as it called in many of them, and countries like the United States and Canada are even extending the system by one month starting next year.

Korea and Japan are the only countries not using the system among the member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But even Japan is ahead of Korea, with Hokkaido Prefecture having experimented with the system as part of a campaign to turn it into a national practice and national lawmakers having drafted bills.

We should not be left behind. Government officials and lawmakers should speed up their discussions to introduce the system at an early date. It would be better for the nation to become the "Land of the Morning Vigor," instead of the pathetic "Land of the Morning Calm."

**For your tips**
￭Conservation: 절약.( energy conservation, time conservation..)
￭Left behind: 뒤쳐지다.
￭During daylight: 낮 동안에, at night: 밤에

Question
1. Have you ever heard of summertime? what did you think about it?
2. If we bring in summertime, what are the benefits?
3. Now, what are the side effects?
4. Do you stand for, or against summertime? Why is so?

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