There may be billions of people living on Planet Earth, but with so many living comes more dead than ever before. Disposing of the dead is, therefore, an important responsibility: how we do it will affect future generations.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the way we’re discarding our deceased is simply not sustainable. In many countries, there just isn’t enough space for the dead. It’s relatively common in the western world for burial plots to be on temporary loan, and in some cities in Germany, for example, undertakers will dig a person up after 15 – 30 years to make room for the next guy. But space isn’t the only pressing issue when it comes to death: it’s also really important to consider the environment. Sustainable living doesn’t end after dying.
A traditional six-feet-under burial is not ideal for the environment because toxic embalming fluids can leak into the ground (not to mention slow the rate of decomposition). Cremation is also a huge problem, which is easy to see when you consider the amount of greenhouse gases released from burning bodies for more than two hours at around 800 degrees Celsius.
I’m not saying that dying will ruin the environment – so no need to selflessly work on that immortality potion – because, fortunately, there are a number of eco-friendly alternatives to traditional burials.
One such alternative burial method involves not burying bodies at all. In Tibet, Buddhist monks often have sky burials, which involve simply laying bodies outside and letting the vultures have them. The monks don’t mind giving up their bodies to complete the circle of life, as they believe that the body is only a vessel and has no worth after death. The majority of people in Tibet, even those who aren’t Buddhist, have sky burials, and there are over 1000 of these burial sites throughout the region. But sky burials are unfortunately not an option open to everyone. Here in New Zealand, for example, there is an insufficient population of carnivorous creatures who would be willing to eat slightly stale human, and leaving bodies lying around would almost certainly offend the local populace.
Sky burials ruled out, then, we might like to try out resomation (though we only get one try, of course). During this process a body is heated in a solution of alkali and water for a few hours and emerges as pure white ash.
Resomation is based on a natural process of decomposition, and because it uses 30% less energy than cremation and has 75% less carbon output it’s much better for the environment.
If resomation’s not resonatin’, then perhaps you could give cryomation a go? In cryomation the body is frozen in liquid nitrogen to a temperature of -196 degrees Celsius and then pressed into a powder. There are absolutely no emissions released in this process, which makes it very environmentally-friendly, and the powder will compost within a year – so you and your kin can literally help your family tree to grow.
Choosing environmentally-friendly burial options helps to change the way we deal with death. A good option to consider is a natural burial, where no embalming fluids are used in the body and no lead or toxins are used in the coffin. Unfortunately for us, the more exotic burial methods of resomation and cryomation aren’t readily available here in Otago, but we can help to change that simply by adding our voice to the conversation and making it known that we’d be open to these methods. If demand increases for these burial options and they become the base standard then a massive problem facing our race will be solved.
Thankfully, unlike in life, it’s very easy to be environmentally-friendly in death, and might even be as simple as having a conversation with your family. Have that conversation now and be the best post-citizen you can be!