双语趣闻：看在环保的份上 请不要离婚

　　For the environment’s sake, don’t get divorced

　　2007-2008学年 第20期

　　By Andy Coghlan 刘颖 译

　　A rising tide of divorce is taking a huge toll on the planet, warns a groundbreaking analysis of the environmental impact of divorce.

　　The environmental cost of a marriage splitting occurs because couples and their families move into separate properties after divorce — meaning they collectively occupy more space, burn more energy, and consume more water than they did as a family unit.

　　“Divorced households are smaller than married households, but consume more land, water, and energy per person than married households,” says Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University in East Lansing, US, who carried out the 12-country analysis with colleague Eunice Yu.

　　In the US, for example, 627 billion gallons of water, the use of 38 million rooms, and 734 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity would have been saved in 2005 alone if no-one had got divorced.

　　In the same year, divorced households spent 46% more on electricity and 56% more on water per person than if they had stayed married. And following a split, US households consumed 42 to 61% more resources per person than while married.

　　Staying together

　　And the problem is likely to get worse, warns Liu. Between 1970 and 2000, the proportion of households headed by divorcees soared from 5 to 15% of all US households. Divorces are also steadily increasing in China, note the authors, where divorce rates have traditionally been low.

　　“Divorce escalates consumption of increasingly limited resources,” the authors warn.

　　Liu urges governments to publicise the hitherto unanticipated environmental costs of divorce, and couples to consider the potential impacts of a divorce before going ahead.

　　He found that resource consumption shrank to what it had been originally if divorced couples remarry.

　　参考译文：

　　根据一份

　　婚姻破裂增加环境成本，是因为离婚之后，夫妻及家人分居，这就意味着他们占用的空间、燃耗的能源、消费的水比他们

　　“离婚家庭比婚姻稳定家庭规模小，但是他们人均土地占用面积、水及能源消费量却大于婚姻稳定家庭，”美国东兰辛的密歇根州立大学的刘建国说道。他和同事尤妮斯•于对12个国家做了分析。

　　比如说，在美国，假如2005年没有人离婚，那么当年就能节省6270亿加仑水，3800万处寓所和7340亿千瓦时电。

　　同年，美国离婚家庭人均多消耗了46%的电和56%的水。离婚之后，美国家庭人均多消耗42%至61%的能源。

　　生活在一起

　　刘建国警告说，这种问题可能会恶化。1970年至2000年之间，美国离婚家庭的比率从5%剧增至15%。研究人员谈到，中国的离婚率也在持续增长，而以前中国的离婚率一直很低。

　　他们警告说：“离婚加快了对日益贫乏的资源的消耗。”

　　刘建国敦促政府公开人们迄今未曾料到的离婚造成的环境成本增加，并力劝夫妻们考虑好离婚可能造成的影响再做决定。

　　他发现，如果离婚夫妻再婚，资源消耗量又会缩减回来的水平。