It appears that the rising divorce rates are not being kind to the environment as married couples are far more eco-friendly.
The reports coming out state that the rising divorce rates are leading to people living in many households instead of under one roof.
This causes them to consume far more energy and water because when they get divorced, they go into separate homes and use up their own resources which harm the environment.
Senior author of the study, Jianguo Liu stated that “People talk about divorce hurting the children. Divorce also has an impact on the environment. Nobody knew about it.”
He stated that “If you increase the number of households, you need more land, then you cut down the forest and cut down trees for fuel, you destroy more habitat for the pandas. There’s a direct connection.”
Liu is talking about the pandas because he started doing research on panda reserves in China many years ago, looking at thow they use up resources and such similar to humans.
Between 1998 and 2002 in 12 countries, there were between 1.1 to 1.8 fewer people living in an average divorced household compared to an average married household. This puts a lot of stress on the environment.
Liu stated that after re-marriage, average household size and number of rooms per person returned to the level of households that were married before the divorce.