I felt I had to write my opinion after I read about a research, led by ecologist Jianguo “Jack” Liu, a Michigan State University professor of fisheries and wildlife on the . He studied the data comparing utility consumption and housing space per capita in married and divorced households and found that divorce creates more households with fewer people, using more energy and water and taking up more space. I guess in a nutshell what he meant is housepooling kind of like carpooling creates efficiency of utilities usage.
I really can’t deny that and I won’t argue with him because that’s really how everything works – you pull your resources together and you can efficiency – the bulk theory you could say. But that observation doesn’t take into account the fact that families grow and in the long run the same consumption would probably in the end match that of the ‘divorced household effect’ or possibly even defeat it.
However if we were concerned about how the rate of divorces increases the wastage of space, then what about families where the financially independent children move out into their own places? We’re not talking about students but instead financially sound young professionals who can afford their own. Would that not also affect the theory of consumption wastage?
So if we should stick together in marriage for the sake of the environment, then we should encourage families to stay together too until they grow too large for the one same household – that means children should continue to stay with their parents well into their 30s and beyond should they choose to remain single?
I love the environment, but there’s really more to co-inhabitation then just the green factor to consider.
