CONNECTIONS: The High Carbon Cost of Divorce

by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

If you really want to help save the planet, get married — and don’t get a divorce. Cohabitation works, too.

Michigan State University researchers Jianguo “Jack” Liu, Ph.D., and his assistant, Eunice Yu, examined 2005 data from 12 countries, including the U.S., and discovered that our 16 million divorces add up to 38 million extra rooms and 7.4 million extra homes— homes that require resources to build, contribute to sprawl, and churn out various emissions. The number of rooms per person in divorced homes was 33 to 95 percent greater than in married households.

“People’s first reaction to this is surprise, and then it seems simple,” says Liu. “But a lot of things become simple after the research is done.”

Falling in love and working out the kinks is the green way to go. Now, instead of staying together for the children’s sake, people may start staying together for the environment’s sake.