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Save a Marriage, Save the Planet
That's right!
While many of us are advocating for biblical, sustained marriages and as best we can, giving both biblical and social reasons for doing so, now we are told that divorce actually harms the planet.
The Philadelphia Enquirer , and a number of other news sources are carrying the story.
Researchers, Jianquo Liu and Eunice Yu from Michigan State University, have found that in the US circa 2000, there were more than six-million "extra" households created because of divorce.
But the associated numbers are even more startling.
Liu and fellow researcher Yu concluded that in 2005, just in the U.S., divorced households could have saved 38 million rooms, 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water if their "resource-use efficiency" had been comparable to that of married households.
According to Lu's analysis, on a per-capita basis, divorced residents consume more goods, use more electricity and water and thus contribute to the emission of more greenhouse gasses than those whose marriages are intact.
Lu said his study is important because, at current divorce levels, the number of households is rising, even out-pacing population growth itself.
He said, "If more people knew the environmental consequences of divorce, more of them might choose to stay together."
We would hope so, Dr. Liu, we would hope so.
If you have a moment read the story.
___________________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom
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6 Comments:
Save Marriage? Just what is FFN doing to decrease divorce? Where is their stay married for the sake of the planet campaign?
Seems odd that Gary expresses such concern for our planet, but the only action he takes re:Marriage is seeking to prevent same-sex marriage. It only follows logically that if divorced couples are generating this excess resource usage, then couples unable to marry would generate a similar excess resource usage. Seems Gary has just presented us with an argument that supports same-sex marraige!!
Jeff in Bellevue
Of course, there's nothing in these findings that shows the married couples have to be opposite genders. So, if you want to do even more to help the environment, it's a good idea to support same-sex marriage, too. More marriages = healthier planet.
This is yet another study that shows stability of all families is important for us as individuals, for our communities, our children, and now, our environment. Marriage is the best institution for providing that stability.
Tony in Seattle
Jeff and Tony. I didn't see that gary was advocating any kind of save the planet stratedgy. He was just reporting an interesting story from the scientific community.
Gay marriage won't impact this study because they live together any way.
Anonymous,
Gary headlined his post "Save a Marriage, Save the Planet".
Seems to me that asking what Gary and FFN are doing to "Save a Marriage" is a perfectly on topic and reasonable response.
Also, given that "saving marriage" is how Gary and those on his side, term their fights against same-sex marriage, commenting on this fact, and how it is in opposition to "Save the Planet" per the study he cited, commenting on this fact is also on topic and reasonable.
Now, do you have anything to add to the discussion? Or are you merely seeking to criticize those of us actually engaging in it?
Jeff in Bellevue
Anonymous at 10:34...
I thought we had a rule that you had to sign your first name and list your city?
Anyway... If this study is true, gay marriage WOULD have a positive effect on the environment.
Of course, no one, gay or straight, is required to marry in order to live together. But it is marriage, with its social and legal obligations and benefits, that makes families stronger, happier, and more likely to stay together.
Seriously now, do you really equate marriage with just "living together"? I'm surprised that, as a supposed marriage advocate, you do not see or acknowledge the power of marriage to keep families together.
Tony in Seattle
Most people equate marriage with having children together. Same-sex couples would require tons of energy to have biological children together using stem-cell derived gametes and IVF. The energy to develop same-sex conception is huge - thousands of researchers driving to energy guzzling labs just to get to the point where they can get a sperm from a woman's stem cells or create a single mouse (out of 450 attempts).
In contrast, men and women don't need any energy to conceive together. And same-sex conception is also going to be super unsafe and untestable, and so completely unethical. Yet they're working on it, they're insisting on it being a right. Crazy.
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