Joint families are planet-friendly: Scientists

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Joint families are planet-friendly: Scientists

 

LONDON: To some, the great Indian joint family is tiresomely

traditional, hopelessly outdated and irretrievably on the decline,

but Western scientists say it may actually be a hugely 'green' or eco-

friendly institution.

 

And while we are on the subject, divorce is bad for the eco-system as

well.

 

Not to speak of the new urban trend from Mumbai to Madrid of leaving

mum and dad to live alone.

 

The startling new arguments are newly published in Britain's Nature

group of publications. They are part of a study that says the modern

trend for a decreasing number of generations to live under one roof

is damaging the environment. It says split families and fragmented

households may be more damaging than simple population growth.

 

India is part of the doleful world snapshot of so-called bio-

diversity hotspots, says ecologist Jianguo Liu, who conducted the

controversial study.

 

A biodiversity hotspot is a region where large numbers of species are

endangered or threatened by human activity.

 

"In the future, this trend will be more profound in India", Liu told

this paper.

 

He said: "During 2000-2015, the average annual rate of growth in

population size in India is projected to be 1.3 per cent, while the

rate of growth in household numbers is projected to be 2.4 per cent.

The latter will likely be almost twice as high as the former".

 

This because of the ugliest reason of them all, families splitting

up. Says Liu, "average (Indian) household size is projected to be

reduced from approximately 5.5 to about 4.8".

 

He says this confirms the insidious trend observed in the 15-year-

period from 1985, when the number of Indian households grew 30 per

cent faster than the population.

 

Average "household size declined from 5.8 to 5.5", Liu said.

 

The study, conducted by Liu and his Michigan University team, says

the abundance of dwellings, with just one, two or three occupants, as

befits the typical nuclear family, can cause a sharp rise in the use

of energy, land, construction materials and water. Both two-person

and six-person households, for example, typically have one

refrigerator.

 

In other words, the family that stays together keeps the planet green.

 

Experts admitted the study was right in its basic conclusions that

more households meant an increase in energy use. But sociologists

said they were still unconvinced that extended families were

the 'greenest' on the globe.

 

Liu, an ecologist who studies the effects of economics on ecosystems,

says this "may be a wake-up call"

 

It may indicate "that everything we do, including personal freedom

and personal choice, may have an impact on the environment".

 

The jury is still out on whether the planet can really be saved by

India's generation X simply moving out of the barsati and back home

with mum and dad.