"The Grass Isn’t Always Greener on the Other Side" by Emma H.
Around two people die each second in the world. That totals to 151,600 deaths each day. The most traditional ways to deal with death disposal are burial and cremation, but are we realizing what it is doing to the planet? First of all, it is costing us precious natural resources that we could be using for other things. Additionally, it is causing more environmental damage than originally predicted. Not only that, but it arises the concerns of uneven birth rates to death rates. What can we do about it?
When we lose a loved one, the last thing we think about is the environment, and that’s okay! However, it is taking away resources that we never stop to think about. For example, cremation uses natural gas and sometimes wood. While it doesn’t use as much wood as it did in the past, it is still a great use of a vital natural resource. It has been said to use as much gas and electricity as a 500-mile road trip. Casket burials are taking 100,000 tons of steel, 1.5 million tons of concrete, 77,000 trees, and 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid each year. Not only is it taking up too many resources, but the embalming fluid is the scariest part.
Embalming fluid is what keeps your loved one preserved and presentable until you are ready to say goodbye. It is carcinogenic and is thought to be seeping into the soil and making it and water unsafe to use. That is so scary because carcinogens are cancer-causing and the thought that it could be polluting our water and soil raises big concerns. It’s not so big of an issue now as it was in the past because of how secure burials are now. The body is more protected from the outside due to a concrete vault and steel caskets compared to a wooden one in the past.
Future solutions to prevent these issues are mushroom burial suits, aquamation, body farms, green burial, and sea burial. Mushroom burial suits cover the body in mushroom spores that, when absorbed, absorb and purify toxins in the body and provide cleaner settings. The suit covers the body head to toe and the mushrooms essentially take over and purify all the toxins into nutrients the soil and trees can use. Aquamation is water cremation without all the natural gas. It does use steel but uses 95% water and 5% potassium or sodium hydroxide. Body farms transform your loved ones into a tree. Green burial is like a regular burial but with no chemicals and only biodegradable are resources used. Sea burial is a burial at sea. These are just a few solutions to the matter at hand.
Embalming fluid is what keeps your loved one preserved and presentable until you are ready to say goodbye. It is carcinogenic and is thought to be seeping into the soil and making it and water unsafe to use. That is so scary because carcinogens are cancer-causing and the thought that it could be polluting our water and soil raises big concerns. It’s not so big of an issue now as it was in the past because of how secure burials are now. The body is more protected from the outside due to a concrete vault and steel caskets compared to a wooden one in the past.
Future solutions to prevent these issues are mushroom burial suits, aquamation, body farms, green burial, and sea burial. Mushroom burial suits cover the body in mushroom spores that, when absorbed, absorb and purify toxins in the body and provide cleaner settings. The suit covers the body head to toe and the mushrooms essentially take over and purify all the toxins into nutrients the soil and trees can use. Aquamation is water cremation without all the natural gas. It does use steel but uses 95% water and 5% potassium or sodium hydroxide. Body farms transform your loved ones into a tree. Green burial is like a regular burial but with no chemicals and only biodegradable are resources used. Sea burial is a burial at sea. These are just a few solutions to the matter at hand.
This issue is very hard to talk about and the solutions are even more difficult to think about. There are issues with our current ways of burying the dead. Are there better ways to bury our dead than these presented? Is it insensitive to even think about changing our ways?
Works Cited
Wetsman, Nicole. “Human Composting: a Greener Way to Die.” Popular Science, Popular Science, 9 May 2019, www.popsci.com/human-composting-greener-way-to-die/.
Maclean, Kelly. “7 Eco-Friendly Options for Your Body After Death.” Mental Floss, 9 Jan. 2018, mentalfloss.com/article/513564/7-eco-friendly-options-your-body-after-death.
“Birth & Death Rates.” Ecology Global Network, www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates/.
“The Cremation Process Step-by-Step. How It Works from Start to Finish.” Funeralwise, www.funeralwise.com/plan/cremation/cremation-process/.
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DeletePersonally I have never really considered human burial to be an issue in our society. Human burial has remained fairly the same for most of human history. However, this article has opened my eyes to the issue at hand. While I feel that it isn't a major issue compared to other social problems, it is an issue nevertheless. Everybody dies, but how we bury them can be changed. I think that concepts such as burial farms are a viable and eco-friendly solution to common burial practices. However, I disagree with the idea of burials at sea. Burials at sea are traditionally reserved for those who have served in the armed forces or alike. In addition, burials at sea would cause a larger pollution issue. There is already a major issue with ocean pollution due to trash. Dumping bodies in the ocean would just add to the abundant amount of foreign materials present.
ReplyDeleteThis article is very interesting. I know myself and others have probably never even thought about it. I really enjoyed this article because it is something that every person has to deal with at some point in their life. I like how it covered different ways that dead people are disposed and then presented a solution in the end. It gives people hope to save the environment from this age old predicament.
ReplyDeleteThe first thought that comes to mind after reading this is "Wow." Talk about presenting something unique, I doubt anyone else has given this very much thought at all. It is scary to me, particularly from all the embalming fluid. That isn't something we can have seeping around underground. I don't know what we could do in alternative to traditional burials and cremations though. It can be assumed that a lot of people would like to keep burials the traditional way because of sentimental reasons, and That is something that would possibly change over a long period of time. It is certainly something interesting to consider though!
ReplyDeleteI have never thought about the impact of burying people, but it is a very interesting topic. I believe that the traditional burying process is fine to do but the effects can be dangerous as stated. I do think that the mushroom suits can be an option and it doesn't really change the funeral and burial process, so it seems fine to do. I don't think that sea burials are a good idea due to the pollution it would make. If the burial products are reaching water sources from burying people in the ground then putting people into the ocean just allows for it to get to water even easier. This is a very interesting topic with good intentions, but changes will be very difficult to be made.
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