divorce harms the environment

Well, we know that it is typically damaging to people. Now, there's word that it harms the environment too! I'd hope people would be much more passionate about avoiding divorce, but here's one more reason to motivate people!

From the AP's Randolph Schmid (hat tip: National Geographic and the C-J)...

Divorce can be bad for the environment, because it tends to result in more households and less sharing of resources, according to a study published this week. Divorce rates are rising around the world, and each time a family dissolves, the result is two new households.

"A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household," said Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University whose analysis of the environmental impact of divorce appears in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....

"People have been talking about how to protect the environment and combat climate change," Liu said. "Divorce is an overlooked factor that needs to be considered."...

Liu, who researches the relationship between ecology and social sciences, said people seem surprised by his findings at first and then consider it simple.

"A lot of things become simple after the research is done," he said....

It's a small thing, but he's right about research: a lot of it is cool stuff, but not brain surgery after the fact.

One could also add that divorce contributes to urban sprawl.

Beyond the environment, increased single heads-of-households affects key economic numbers as well. For example, the measurement of "household" and "family" income will be markedly different if the official head of a household is a single person or a married couple-- or a married household that become two single-headed households.