An Hour For Earth

In addition to its pink sand beaches and world-class golf courses, Bermuda is also known for its reinsurance companies and financial services—basically what amounts to a round-the-clock workforce. Bottom line it's a busy group of people, but here’s hoping anyone who punches in next Saturday saves any and all work before 8:30pm: In cooperation with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and local charity Greenrock, Bermuda’s government, companies and organizations will participate in Earth Hour, a worldwide hour-long blackout to raise awareness for global climate change. That means from 8:30pm until 9:30pm all electricity for participating entities will officially be shut down (don’t worry executives, you’ll still be able to use your Blackberry). As the above video attests, it’s pretty amazing actually. What began in 2007 with 2.2 million people powering down in Sydney, Australia, has grown into a global movement with more than 50 million people in 400 cities doing the same in 2008 and over 1 billion people in 4,000 cities in 2009. It’s an inspiring video, so keep watching until around 1:20 when you’ll see the lights go out at well-known monuments, structures and buildings worldwide. I’m not sure how much impact Bermuda will have on the global off switch but I think that’s exactly the point: Every little bit helps.