As if divorce couldn't be messy enough, it can be worse for the environment. A team of U.S. researchers have quantified the "resource-inefficient lifestyles" of separated couples to damage caused to the environment.
The details of the study which quantify the effects of the post-marital lifestyles of former couples in countries including the United States, Greece, Romania, Spain, Brazil and Cambodia, will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online edition. The report indicates that the multiplication of resources that comes with the splitting of families is a large part of the problem, as divorcees double up on cars, homes and anything else that they need to maintain their lifestyles.
According to Jianguo Liu, director of the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University, "Divorce increases the number of households, which increases the demands for more household products such as washing machines, fridges."
"Not only the United States, but also other countries, including developing countries such as China and places with strict religious policies regarding divorce, are having more divorced households," Dr. Liu said. "The consequent increases in consumption of water and energy and using more space are being seen everywhere."
In the United States, the study found that divorce cost the country an additional 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to feed an extra 38.5 million rooms in 2005. The increasing trend in divorce rate is certainly not limited to the countries that were included in the study and
Dr. Liu called this a "global challenge."
Dr. Liu indicated that the study did not tabulate factors that could be the result of a separation, such as the increased greenhouse gas emissions caused by driving an additional car to visit children, which would have further reaching effects on pollution levels.
The increased demands of people living apart from each other is not only because of divorcees, many people choose not to get married and live alone. Eventually kids grow up and want to get their own place and their own car, while the surviving parents live alone in their empty nest. As the population continues to increase and the demand for materials and resources increases at a voracious rate, cohabitation seems to be the only way to curb this trend.
Divorce is Bad for the Environment
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