Stories tagged water use

Trouble in paradise?: Would your pending divorce impact the quality of this natural scene? May a little, but a researcher says that the growing number of divorces across the world are having negative environmental impacts.
Courtesy justinrussellHere’s one more good reason to avoid getting a divorce: it’s not green.

A Michigan State researcher has discovered that there are significant environmental costs to our planet when people divorce. Boiling it down to the bare facts, divorce creates more households with fewer people living in them using up more energy and natural resources.

One stat shared in the study says that Americans spend $3.6 billion a year on water usage through the extra housing units that are needed for people who are no longer living together as married couples.

The study also states that households of divorced couples are less efficient when it comes to heating and air conditioning issues. For instance, the same amount of energy is used to heat a home with two or people living in it.

As the study’s results have been released, however, others are raising questions on other matters of household size. Critics of the study say that it doesn’t look at the environmental factors impacted by those who choose not to marry or those who are living alone due to the death of a spouse. Likewise, the study didn’t address the household environmental impact of people who choose to live together and are not married.

So what do you think? Is there any validity to a study like this? Should environmental impacts be a consideration when assessing personal relationships? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.

Tags : ecology, divorce, energy use, water use

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