Updated: 12/4/2007 3:10:42 PM Posted: 12/4/2007 3:10:12 PM
WASHINGTON -- Here's a reason to stay married: Divorce can be bad for the environment.
An ecologist at Michigan State University has been studying the affect of divorce on the environment and finds married households are more efficient when it comes to water, energy and land use.
When there's a divorce, one household becomes two and that means a higher drain on resources. In the U.S., for example, splitting households increase utility costs by nearly $7 billion per year.
The researcher says he knows some couples really do need to split up, but says living with other people helps reduce the impact on the environment.
The analysis appears in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
© 2010 The Associated Press
