Divorce is bad for the Environment

Obvious research result award goes to Jianguo Liu, an ecologist at Michigan State University for his paper that shows that divorce leads to the use of more resources. Anyone surprised? I hope these esteemed institutions and foundations got their money's worth.

I find this statement odd to say the least:

Liu, who researches the relationship of ecology with 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.

Who would find this a surprise? What I am missing?

Mother Nature feels the pains of divorce [Yahoo news]

WASHINGTON - Divorce can be bad for the environment. In countries around the world divorce rates have been rising, 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.

More households means more use of land, water and energy, three critical resources, Liu explained in a telephone interview.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station.

H/T: Freakonomics (who make no comment).