‘œMarriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.’ ‘“ previously proposed constitutional amendment on marriage

Last month, a study partially funded by the National Science Foundation, found that Broken Homes Damage the Environment. Shirley Siluk Gregory at Planetsave offered this commentary on the news:

Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along comes a new study that finds yet one more way in which we humans can screw up the environment: get divorced. Actually, as weird as it might sound at first, the discovery’¦ makes perfect sense once you consider the typical result of divorce: two people and, possibly, children who once all shared one home now live in two separate 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot households with two sets of refrigerators, two water-heaters, two heating-and-air-conditioning units, etc.

We get it. Divorce is bad for the environment and so the Foundation offers this remedy:

Fall back in love. Cohabitation means less urban sprawl and softens the environmental hit.

Meghan Daum, my favorite columnist and the only reason I ever read the Los Angeles Times offers this view about staying married:

In other words, the splintering effect of divorce results in fewer people living under one roof — and often one person living alone in a house. And as enticing as that may sound to anyone who’s tired of sharing the television remote control, Liu’s [one of the researchers] conclusion suggests this is equivalent to driving around in a gas guzzler all by yourself with the air conditioner on full blast and a cellphone needlessly plugged into the charger.

But laying blame on ‘œdivorced households’ and lionizing marriage is also a bit of a canard. The study did not analyze resources used by never-married solo dwellers, people who cohabitate with partners or people who live with roommates or family members. Still, it seems safe to assume that the more elbow room we make for ourselves, the bigger our carbon footprints.

And with that Liu concludes that environmental policy is more complex than one single solution by suggesting:

Governments across the world may need to start factoring in divorce when examining environmental policy.

Better yet, how about starting with our government recognizing the benefits of gay marriage when examining environment policy? Do you think shacking up is one more thing you can do to add to your green scorecard? And if so, then it makes sense being able to stamp it with marriage is one more way to make it last. Or is it? Let me know what you think below.