Al and Tipper Gore Separating

She probably got tired of all his doom and gloom nonsense.

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."

Tipper Gore is known for her advocacy on mental health issues. She became interested partly because her mother suffered from depression.

I wonder who gets the plush oceanfront villa?

These people are so selfish. Don't they realize how bad divorce is for the environment?

Per person, divorced households spent more per month for electricity compared with a married household, as multiple people can watch the same television, listen to the same radio, cook on the same stove or eat under the same lights.

That means about $6.9 billion in extra utility costs per year, Liu calculated, plus an added $3.6 billion for water, in addition to other costs such as land use.

And it isn't just the United States. Liu looked at 11 other countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Greece, Mexico and South Africa, between 1998 and 2002.

In the 11, if divorced households had combined to have the same average household size as married households, there could have been a million fewer households using energy and water in those countries.

"People have been talking about how to protect the environment and combat climate change, but divorce is an overlooked factor that needs to be considered," Liu said. He stressed that he is not condemning divorce: "Some people really need to get divorces." But, he said, "one way to be more environmentally friendly is to live with other people and that will reduce the impact."