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Are Divorces Harming the Environment?
December 11, 2007

Last week, the National Academy of Sciences released a study that claims divorces are bad for the environment. How? After a divorce, a single household generally splits into two households. More households lead to more use of water, land and energy.
Households with fewer people are not as efficient as households with more people sharing common resources, says Jianguo Liu, the ecologist who performed the research. For instance, appliances like the refrigerator or the heater will use the same amount of energy for a two-person or four person household. In essence, we lose some economies of scale when a larger household fractures into two smaller ones.

Per Liu’s study, divorced households consume more energy per person than comparable married household. Based on Liu’s calculation, divorced households used an extra 73 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 627 billions gallons of water, resources that could have been saved if the household had stayed the same size when married. The study also examined 11 other countries and had similar findings.

Although I found the results interesting, I am skeptical of the practical implications of the study. I highly doubt that environmental considerations will impact the social and emotional decisions that lead to divorce. However, it does raise a good point that when possible, it is advantageous to share common resources. Just thought I put this story out there and see what others think.

The entire story can be found online at The Washington Post or Environmental News Network

CindyC at Organicpicks

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