At the start of a new year, here is a new initiative to help combat climate change.
It is called Geetotal. The G stands for Greenhouse gasses – those that are causing climate change – and it has a simple aim: ‘Together we commit to adding no more to total greenhouse gas emissions.’
Has the world finally woken up to the risk climate change poses? The Paris Summit on Climate Change last month has come to a historic agreement. Or has it? There are differing views. The campaign group Avaaz has called it ‘a brilliant and massive turning point in human history’. Greenpeace more cautiously has said ‘This deal won’t dig us out the hole we’re in, but it makes the sides less steep.’
Both are right. The Paris deal wills the end but does not mandate the means. As Avaaz goes on to say: ‘Ambitious visions like these rely on movements to carry them into the mainstream, and on movements to make them reality in our everyday lives. Today is no exception.’ Geetotal aims to be one of those movements. The Geetotal community will commit to adding no more to total greenhouse gas emissions. The deal signed in Paris sets the aim for the world as a whole to get to the same point in the second half of this century. The Geetotal community will pave the way by doing this now.

The Geetotal Commitment
“I am willing to join others in making the Geetotal Commitment. From now on, together as a community, we commit to adding no more to the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions
Why?
• We need to step up a gear in our response to Climate Change. Governments can only do so much. Each of us has a responsibility.
• The Commitment is manageable: it has been designed by people with busy lives to be a practicable commitment for all of us to make, individuals and organisations
• It provides a wake-up call for others in our society.
What does it involve?
The Commitment has four parts: Cut, Offset, Pressure, Share: COPS for short.
Take a look at the website for details:
http://www.geetotal.org
And do give some thought to taking part.