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Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007 when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned off their lights for an hour. Two years later the symbolic gesture drew the attention of world leaders as over 60 countries participated in the event. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide turned off lights for a full hour.

This was a 25 hour energy-saving campaign spreading the visual message around the world. Environmentalists say nations now have a mandate to tackle climate change.

The pictures are spectacular. Log on to any major online newspaper and take a look at the sights ranging from The Empire State Building in NYC; in San Francisco The Golden Gate Bridge and other major city landmarks were dark for an hour; the Parthenon Temple on Acropolis Hill in Greece; The Houses of Parliament and Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square in London; the Eiffel Tower where 20,000 bulbs illuminating the town went out; in Rome even St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican (along with the Coliseum) were turned off; the Giza Pyramids in Egypt; the Bird Nest stadium was darkened for an hour; the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that watches over Rio de Janeiro, along with the beachfront of the Copacabana. And, of course, The Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge were darkened – the city where this all began.

Many people participated in their own special way - in Indonesia a candle message was constructed saying VOTE EARTH in the Jakarta business district. In Manila people held up their mobile phones and glow sticks in front of a huge globe that is normally illuminated. Others decided to “freeze their movement” for a few minutes in Beijing, China.

“Earth Hour has always been a positive campaign,” said Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley. “It’s always around street parties, not street protests, it’s the idea of hope, not despair. And I think that’s something that’s been incredibly important this year”

What a spectacular sight. And one of hope, not despair.

You can turn off your lights at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28th and Vote Earth for Earth Hour 2009 – your light switch is your vote.

Over 84 countries, 6,299 organizations, 21,014 businesses, 8,742 schools, 2,848 cities and towns are switching off lights in their areas for one hour – 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. across the globe.

By switching off lights for one hour people around the world you are voting to do something about global warming. The World Wildlife Fund is urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes. The results of the election will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. These world leaders are being sent a message to take action against global warming.

You have an opportunity to use your light switch as your vote: simply turn off most of your lights for that one hour wherever you are. Restaurants are serving customers by candle light, buildings are turning off lights, community organizations around the world are getting behind the campaign: Sweden is ringing church bells, Sydney Ferries are sounding their horns, and The Scouts, the world’s largest youth movement with more than 28 million members in 160 countries are leading thousands of community groups around the world to mobilize their supporters for Earth Hour.

Some of the buildings that will be darkened are Harrah’s Hotel in Las Vegas, Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro; Opera House, Helsinki, Finland; Nelson’s column, Trafalgar Square, London; Clock Town, Manila, Philippines; Parliament House, Canberra, Australia; and 28 French cities will turn off lights including The Eiffel Tower. Beijing has already rehearsed Earth Hour and will put the famous Bird’s Nest Stadium, the Water Cube and Pangu Plaza into darkness.

You can show your support by visiting the World Wildlife Fund website or just simply searching for Earth Hour. Your kids could have fun mobilizing their school by downloading banners, posters, stickers and getting online badges. And, of course, participating at 8:30 p.m. this Saturday.

Earth Hour: Your light switch is your vote.

You may have read that Social Networks are now more popular than email.  It’s hard to believe – seems we all have so much email to deal with, how can Facebook and the like be more popular than email.  But apparently a new report by Nielsen claims that Social Networks and blogs are now the fourth most popular online activity. 

And Social Networks are not just for kids any more. In fact Facebook’s biggest growth has been coming from people aged 35-49 – hardly the college kid demographics that launched the popular site.

Perhaps what was of most interest is that time spent on Social Networks and blogs is growing at over 3x the rate of overall Internet growth. What are all these people doing – catching up, finding old boyfriends and girlfriends? Looking for a job? Posting pictures of themselves on their travels and of their family? Poking? Who has the time? 

A lot of people apparently – 45 billion minutes between December 2007 and December 2008 was spent on Member Community sites!!

So as a final thought, as it is apparent we are all spending time on these social networks, when you do poke a friend use it sparingly…it can be considered a little irritating (or perverse if you over do it). Wall to wall is pretty public so remember that – you can always send a message as opposed to posting your back and forth commentary for multitudes to read, and watch who you let become your friend.  If you don’t recognize them learn more before you agree. If you do agree, and then change your mind, you can always delete them as a friend and no message will be sent to them.

Most of America stopped working; eating; talking today to watch with pride this historic occasion in our nation’s capital. What an incredible sight – seeing over 1.5 million, possibly even 2 million people sharing in the peaceful transition of power from one President to another.

There were so many special moments: some moving, some humorous but mostly reverent: To name but a few…

Pastor Warren in his Inaugural Invocation spoke of inclusiveness and of the historic nature of this occasion:

“Today we celebrate the hinge point of history in the inauguration of the first African-American president of the United States, a land of unequal possibility where the son of an African immigrant can rise to highest leadership,”

Aretha Franklin’s velvet voice delivering a gorgeous rendering of ‘My Country ‘Tis of Thee’ with such majesty – oh that hat – just fabulous!

Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriella Montero played a beautiful piece composed by John Williams – easy on the ears, enjoyed by all.

The Inaugural Poem by Elizabeth Alexander, a Pulitzer Prize finalist – a  moving poem talking not only about love but of national resolve:

‘We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.’And of course Chief Justice Roberts – his first inauguration swearing in – stumbling slightly in the beginning of the oath, thus creating a bit of a muddle with the word faithfully. But it all worked out and we now have our 44th president of this great country.

I hope you watched with your friends, co-workers or family. Today was truly an historic event. Something we should all feel proud to have witnessed and been a part of.

Monday is Martin Luther King Day – a day that was initiated by congress in 1994 as a Day of Service. It is therefore a day when we have an opportunity give back to our communities, to volunteer and create neighborhood projects that help others.

Mercifully this is not a day when we are barraged with cheesy commercials encouraging us to shop at deep discounts. Rather this is a special day that honors Dr. King into a “national day of community service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social justice”.

Most likely your kids are going to be doing something next week (either on Monday or sometime later that week) that will be helping people in their community through an organization. It would be fun to join in with your family and perform some sort of act of kindness by giving back to others.

If you are not sure how to participate you can visit several sites that focus on this day – Martin Luther King’s government site; the Corporation for National and Community Service and the USA Service organization, established by the President-elect, are just three sites that provide a wealth of information.

The “Renew America Together” initiative asks all Americans to make an ongoing commitment to serve their communities – its remarkable, invigorating and inspirational to see so many volunteer events being set up for January 19th and beyond.

We hope you enjoy your community volunteer event.