It seems that the breakdown of marriages is not only hurting people, i.e. families in particular, but also the planet. Check out this article from the Green Tech website.
Green Tech
Divorce pains the planet
by Elsa Wenzel
As if the burden of divorce weren't bad enough, people with failed marriages can be blamed for global warming, according to a study by Michigan State University.
Divorced couples use up more space in their respective homes, which amounts to 38 million more rooms worldwide to light, heat and cool, noted the report.
And people who divorced used 73 billion kilowatt-hours more of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water than they would otherwise in 2005.
Dissolving a marriage also means doubling possessions, from the lowly can opener to the SUV. The report, however, did not estimate how many more natural resources the children of shared-custody parents consume by getting birthday and holiday gifts twice.
Nor did it count the greenhouse gases spent to shuttle kids between their pair of energy-hogging households. (Tip for carbon offsetting services: the domain name OffsetMyDivorce.com is available.).
Rates of divorce are rising around the world, while dropping in North America along with those of marriage, according to the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University.
Divorce ends 46 percent of marriages in the United States, the seventh highest rate in the world, according toDivorce Magazine. The top world record is held by Sweden, where 55 percent of marriages end by divorce. On the other end is Guatemala, with a mere .13 percent divorce rate.
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded partly by the National Institutes of Health.
When I read the article above, I was even more shocked to read this:
(6/1/10) NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, are separating after 40 years of marriage.
According to an e-mailed statement obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, the Gores said it was "a mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration."
Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider confirmed the statement came from the Gores, but declined to comment further.
Al Gore lost the 2000 presidential election to Republican George W. Bush. He has since campaigned worldwide to draw attention to climate change, which in 2007 led to a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
Al Gore with all his bloviating about how we are all destroying the planet with our carbon footprint, seems to be a lot like the rest of us – He is adding to his fair share of personal responsibility in brining planet earth to its inevitable end.
When I read these two articles, I was reminded on what Paul said in Romans 1. He mentioned that when mankind rejects the Creator, you know what they do next? They worship the creation (Rom. 1:21-25).
You see, this is the whole problem with the modern day environmental movement. They do not want to subject themselves to Father God, but would rather worship and serve Mother Earth. As a result of rejecting the Creator Himself, they are left with the only other option – worship the creature and the creation.
As a result of stooping this low, what happens next? “They profess themselves to be wise, but (in due time) they become fools” (Rom. 1:22).
This is what is now occurring with Al Gore. Without God and without acknowledging the Creator who has all power over creation, Al Gore like the rest of the Enviro-maniacs put all the emphasis on saving the planet while at the same time he is unable to save what should matter most to him – his marriage!
Folks, listen carefully: We need to be good stewards of God’s creation. We need to carefully do our part in managing the resources God has given to us. But all the while we do such things, we keep at the center of our minds that we only do such things because we worship and serve the Creator, not the creation. When a person goes from worshiping God to worshiping His creation, then that person becomes one of the secular environmentalists who are basically pantheists in that they believe that creation itself is God.
A good thing to remember about the secular global environmental movement is this: They have thrown the Creator under the bus for His creation. For people who do such things, God has determined to “give them over” (divine abandonment – Rom. 1:24, 26, 28), in order “to do those things which are not proper.”
Don’t fall into this kind of mindset. Be separate and be distinguished. Christians are committed to worship Father God not Mother Earth. If you remember this, it can save your marriage!
