At a time when financial pundits say that the country has exhausted all avenues to deal with the huge budget deficit and the runaway debt bill, some are opting to go back to basics, attempting to alleviate the financial crisis, at least in part.

There is near consensus among citizens, both officials and private, that the country’s huge energy bill contributes a great deal to the growing budget deficit.

Aware of that, the government has decided to take some measures. One, which should have been taken long ago, was to do away with some of the exaggerated night-lighting.

Since every small step can make a difference, the initiative of a group of mothers calling on all of us to go green, to make the country a healthier place to live in and, in the process, help reduce the budget deficit can only be lauded.

The little known society GoGreen Jordan is spearheading such drive, raising public awareness about its goals among families, schools, companies and the public sector. The goal: to make Jordan more environment friendly.

The society, which grew into a green party of sorts, wants to increase the green areas in the country, recycle waste and make the country depend more on renewable sources of energy, namely solar and wind.

In the hope of touching a sensitive cord, the group reminds us that “we do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”.

Such a potent message should be enough to spur citizens to action. We should all chip in, each in his/her own way. Being more careful about water usage, not littering, respecting nature by not uprooting trees, not polluting, economising on electricity usage, avoiding planting water-intensive crops could be a good starting point.

Enterprising people could find many others and have the courage to promote them.

Nothing should be discounted as unimportant. And who knows, maybe in the not so distant future, we will have a green party that could promote issues and raise concerns about the environment.

We all stand to benefit from a clean country.

http://www.jordantimes.com/index.php?news=37900