- (ANI) -- Ecologists studying the effects of economics
on ecosystems have warned that human population growth and the number of
growing households is globally threatening animal and plant life.
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- A new study by Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University
in East Lansing and colleagues suggests that moving back home or getting
a divorce affects our impact on other species. Human population growth
is threatening animals and plants, but so too is the rising number of households,
even in areas where the population is steady or shrinking, it says.
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- Throughout the world, the number of generations living
under one roof has declined, and divorce is splitting families into multiple
homes. More households containing fewer people are more damaging to the
environment than simple population growth, Jianguo Liu was quoted as saying
in Nature.
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- The abundance of dwellings with just one, two or three
occupants can cause a sharp rise in the use of energy, land, construction
materials and water. For example, both two-person and six-person households
typically have one refrigerator.
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- "The more we take from biological systems, the greater
the impact on biodiversity," says Jessica Hellmann, a conservation
biologist at the Centre for Biodiversity Research at the University of
British Columbia in Vancouver. She says measuring human consumption in
terms of household units is a better way of thinking about the global problem.
(ANI)
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