Is a High Divorce Rate Contributing Towards Global Warming?

Today, we have crossed the threshold of the industrial revolution. Now, new industries are sprouting up all across the globe. The previously detached areas, that were under developed, are also being increasingly industrialised.

However, as with virtually all things, there is a flip side, to the coin. All the increased activity in the industrial arena has taken a heavy toll on the natural environment. It has led to a situation where global warming has become the buzzword across households and board rooms of the world.

Global warming is definitely causing a loss of sleep to numerous people all over. In order to further broaden the issue at hand, it is important to understand what global warming is all about.

The increase in the average temperature of air which is near the earth’s surface as well as the average temperature of the oceans in the last few decades, with the possibility of its continuing increase, is referred to as global warming.

It has caused an increased melting of polar ice caps, the Himalayan glaciers and a corresponding increase in the sea water levels from one corner of the earth to the other. It is changing the global climate in a drastic fashion.

It is feared that if appropriate steps to check global warming are not taken on an urgent basis then it will probably lead to a very changed, very different natural environment in the near future, maybe within a fifty to hundred years’ time span itself.

It is already being blamed for the extinction of several species of flora and fauna. The animal world also seems to be seriously under threat from the spectre of global warming. Species such as the polar bear and their ilk are supposed to be at great risk with the increase in mean temperatures causing a change in their habitats.

The main culprit for all this is supposed to be the increased industrial activity across the globe. The emission of carbon monoxide and other such gases is being blamed for an ever increasing diameter of the ozone hole over the polar ice caps.

However, there are social aspects also for this increase in gas emissions on the planet. It may seem strange at first but even a seemingly unrelated thing as divorce amongst an increasing number of populace is having its own impact on the global warming.

Though it sounds strange, yet it is true and not at all difficult to understand as to how the increased rate of divorce is causing an increase in the global temperatures all over the planet. A study to understand this aspect has come up with some startling facts.

As the divorce rate spirals out of control, it is creating more and more families with lesser number of individuals composing the given families. This is the obvious corollary of the family break up which follows a divorce.

These smaller family units automatically have the same requirements as their larger or intact counterparts. However, when the families are intact then they tend to use less of everything as compared to when they have broken up.

For example in an intact family there will be a need for a single home as a family shelter. This home is going to need electricity and other energies along with water and similar resources. All things are utilised to a limited extent.

However when a divorce takes place, then automatically, a need arises for two different homes to shelter the now divided family. These two homes, when put together, require more water, more electricity and more of all other amenities as compared to the intact household.

A divorce not only puts pressure on the system for more homes and electricity but even other infrastructure such as the roads have to be increased as a consequence of the increase in the number of families.

Other resources such as fuel and wood and land also face a corresponding increase in demand. Not only is there greater demand for all the resources, they are also used in a comparatively less efficient manner when compared with intact families. Thus we can now easily state that divorce is bad for the environment.