Sounds like a good research problem. Who would ever go to Michigan State anyway? ;)
I don't listen to environmentalists, they contradict themselves too much... sorry!
They want us to use wind and solar power, yet when you want to erect a wind turbine, the same environmentalists argue that birds will fly into them. So those are bad. When you want to build a structure with the exterior mostly of glass to promote the use of solar heat, the same environmentalists say that birds will fly into those as well. So that's bad. We use oil and coal for energy right now, the same environmentalists think its evil because oil will kill whales, polar bears, and penguins and coal will pollute the air.
I'm all for conserving energy and water because its cheaper for me. I do my part by using a small car, replaced my bulbs with the expensive (not to mention they contain a small amount of mercury, thus difficult to dispose of) flourescent bulbs, updated all the baseboard heaters in my home to more efficient ones, we had 8 inches of cellulose insulation blown into our attic, our toilets have been changed over to those 1.2 gallons per flush, we replaced our dishwasher and washing machine to use less water. Yet after all of this, I'm evil because I have a kid, so I'm contributing to the over population problem. But hey, I'm enjoying the lower utility bills :)
We probably would still have a Space Shuttle Columbia and the seven astronauts who perished had CFC's had not been totally banned.
Environmentalists? More like Anti-human ;)
Well, duh...of course divorced couples are using more energy...they are now running two different households and not sharing resources, although I suspect sharing kids adds to it.
And the point of the research?? I mean, you can't make couples stay together and no matter how energy efficient their appliances are, they still have to use water and electricity.