A harmless death

Heather Dowling

Image by 'Redvers' at www.flickr.com We hear all about our lifestyles and their affect on climate change. But while we are conscious of the impact our lives are making, what about our deaths?

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Up to 70% of people who die in Australia choose to be cremated. These cremations create 10–16 million kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, which is the same as keeping 3.8 million 2.4ltr cars on the road.
In a cremation, the coffin — along with the body — is turned to ash, never to be used again. This ash is of little, if any, nutritional use to the environment.

Burials are not great either. Bodies are filled with embalming chemicals which eventually seep into the soil. Coffins are lined with plastic, which means the body inside cannot naturally decompose and replenish the earth, but instead it putrefies with a foul smell trapped inside a plastic bag. Also, the cost of running a cemetery is high, both financially and to the environment. The gardens often use chemicals and pesticides in their maintenance.

Rev Dave Hosking, a Uniting Church minister and environmental activist from Albany, WA, is one person trying to make a difference by thinking globally while acting locally. He believes the burial methods used in Western countries today are having huge effects on the environment.

Dave says that, although for some people these burial methods are inextricably linked to their Christian beliefs, this isn’t necessarily the case. Image by 'Redvers' at www.flickr.com

In fact, he says, for much of Christian history it was only the rich who were buried with ornate coffins and gravesites.

“Look at the way Jesus was buried,” Dave says. “He was wrapped in a shroud and put into the ground. For most burials historically, bodies were shrouded and put in a hole in the ground.”

This idea is custom inmany religions. In Islam, it is common practice for a deceased body to be wrapped in a shroud with a simple gravesite, laid with a wreath, because Islam encourages people away from extravagant displays.

“We have adopted an American-style burial industry which is enormous and frightening,” Dave says.

Funerals can be extremely expensive, costing up to $7k, and he believes that we need to make them more personal.

“I want to take away the methodology of burials, make death a part of life and make burials as natural as possible.”

One way of doing this is to create what the Natural Earth Burial Society of Australia calls the ‘Forest of Souls'.

In an attempt to create environmental harmony, we could be buried upright, to save space, either in a biodegradable coffin or wrapped in a shroud. A tree would be planted over the grave as a monument where a gravestone would have been. Our bodies then provide the nutrients for the tree’s future — which could absorb over one metric tonne of carbon dioxide over 100 years.

Funeral services could be held in the forest and, as headstones aren't necessary, people would be able to locate their loved ones by using ground level markers and a GPS system.

Biodegradable coffins can be made from cardboard, which breaks down in about a year; or shrouds can be made from hemp, cotton or felt which break down in about three months. The coffins or shrouds can be personally decorated to reflect the life of the deceased.

The idea of eco-burials isn't new and there are many different options, particularly in Europe and North America. A leader in the field in Australia is funeral director, Kevin Hartley, who has appeared on the ABC New Inventors program with his inventions the ‘Transporter’ and the ‘Bio Pod'. Both options are designed to reduce our environmental footprint.

The concept of the ‘Forest of Souls’ could be a good alternative for highly populated areas like China where cremations are usually used to save space. Space can also be saved through a vertical burial, so memorial forests could be set up on the edge of these cities, which would be peaceful places to remember lost loved ones, but also a precious gift to the atmosphere.

Rather than conflicting with Christian beliefs, an eco-burial can be a spiritual experience.

Since creation, life has been on this earth not to destroy it but to nurture it, and the natural order of life is that our energy is put back into the earth to replenish it. If we approach death with the knowledge that we could be helping to heal the world, perhaps it might make the topic slightly easier to deal with.

“If you take control of a death,” Dave says, “you can make that death a meaningful end to a wonderful life. We are but visitors and when we leave, let us even take our footsteps with us.”

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