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Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard that increasing eco-awareness around the world has now extended itself to the afterlife, whereby burials can even be “green.” Is that true? -- Mary Lewis, Duxbury, MA
Modern western-world burial practices are arguably absurd, all things considered: We pack our dearly departed with synthetic preservatives and encase them in impenetrable coffins meant to defy the natural forces of decomposition that have been turning ashes to ashes and dust to dust for eons. And in the process we give over thousands of acres of land every year to new cemetery grounds from coast to coast...
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"Each year American funerals consume 30 million board feet of casket wood, 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid, and thousands of acres of land." Image credit to "Getty Images."
