Bermuda joined more than 7,000 cities, towns and municipalities in 150 countries in a collective show of strength against climate change on Saturday.Earth Hour, originally designed as an awareness raising event, had its debut in 2007.On Saturday, an Earth Hour expo was hosted by environmental charity Greenrock and the Earth Hour council (City of Hamilton, Belco, Department of Sustainable Development and the Department of Energy).A crowd of 600 gathered around the City Hall steps and were welcomed by Deputy Mayor Donal Smith and Economic Development Minister Grant Gibbons.The Earth Hour events included a green living expo, environmental movies and discussions, a city market and a glow-in-the-dark fun walk-run.City lights were turned off for an hour — joined by more than 30 businesses — at 8:30pm as 250 walkers participated in the walk.Last night Greenrock President Judith Landsberg declared Bermuda’s Earth Hour a great success.“Greenrock was very happy to see even more people coming out to show their commitment to living more sustainably and to enjoy this vibrant community event.“The evening was a great success and we were delighted to be part of a global event making a positive statement about climate change.“We hope that the people who came, leave with a renewed commitment to make the small changes in their lives that add up to big changes in our environmental footprint. Bermuda, as an island, is particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change and we will continue to raise awareness of these issues in every way we can”.Earth Hour CEO and Co-Founder, Andy Ridley said yesterday that the event has matured from its consciousness raising origins “to a global movement that is not just calling for change but is engaging in it.”“Russian supporters, who last year helped secure legislation against oil pollution in the seas using the I Will If You Will campaign, now have more than 100,000 signatures on a new petition calling for forest protection; while WWF and Earth Hour partners in Madagascar handed out 1000 wood saving stoves to victims of February’s cyclone Haruna, passing significant savings on to families while reducing charcoal producing and wood gathering impacts on forests,” the release noted.“From villages in India without electricity being lit up with solar energy for the first time, to Libya where participants took part in an 80-kilometre walk from Gharyan to the capital Tripoli to celebrate Earth Hour 2013 at 8:30PM — people from all walks of life, all backgrounds went to amazing lengths to share what the planet means to them and what they are willing to do to protect it.”Nelson Mandela, the first President of a free South Africa, also participated — by tweeting his support for the anti- deforestation campaign.“The trees & forests were destroyed exactly because our people were so dependent upon them as sources of energy,” his tweet reads.And in China, six social media sites — with a reach of 200 million people — went dark.Earth Hour was also recognised in various ways in countries as far flung as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Libya, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Jamaica.Palestine, Suriname, Rwanda and Tunisia were among the countries making their Earth Hour debuts on Saturday.