Carbon Footprints of the Dead

 

 

 

 

 

 

One human cremation produces an average of 534.6 pounds of carbon dioxide. Additionally, it’s estimated cremations in the U.S. account for about 360,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions each year.

If you have been on this Earth for as long as I have you might be wondering how you want your body to be dealt with after you have moved away from it? It dawned on me fairly recently that it would be foolish for a life-long enviro activist and advocate such as I to go out in a hellish blaze leaving behind dioxin, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide and hundreds of pounds of CO2 emissions in my wake.
Apparently, people have been opting for cremation over burial over the past few decades, perhaps more because of the increasing expense of traditional funerals and burials than for any concern about the Climate Crisis. That said, here in the U.S. burials use about 30 million board feet of casket wood, 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, and 4.3 million gallons of toxic embalming fluid which not only accounts for some of the expense but is, in itself a problem for the climate and the environment. Perhaps we will have to find an alternative to death, one that doesn’t involve such difficult choices.
Enter green burial. Not enough towns and municipalities allow burials to be much like those of the distant past, either using simple wood or fibre board caskets and some requiring no casket at all but perhaps a shroud. There are concerns about sinking plots as things start the inevitable return to the Earth or potential effects on ground water as all the toxins and heavy metals we incorporate over the years in our bodies begin the journey back out into the world. Likewise there is the argument that too much land is used to bury our loved ones, a strange position to take given what Corporate America and other developers are building out there. Frankly,  local or state governments need to wake up to the many present and yet to be realized realities of the Climate Crisis. Green burial can be done safely to address such concerns but the funeral industry would much rather your bereaved cover the outrageous costs of doing it their way. It’s yet another example of business-as-usual vs. a livable world for future generations.  I’m willing to bet most people concerned about climate chaos and social justice would rather leave a legacy behind that reflects the beliefs and concerns they held during their time on Earth.

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See: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eco-afterlife-green-buria/