Resources and Information Supporting Green Burial in North America
If you think it’s hard to live in an environmentally conscious manner, just wait until you’re dead!
By Michael Kalmanovitch, SEE magazine
Even in death, Michael Kalmanovitch will follow the cardinal rules of conservation. He wants his body rendered, “like any other animal,” and hopefully recycled–rendering, of course, being the process by which a body is crushed or boiled to seperate the fat from the bone. The fat can then be used to make animal feed, wax, glue, etc.
by Laura Godfrey, Assistant Arts Editor, Excalibur
Thousands of people recently found out just how easy it is to be green at Toronto’s first Green Living Show. The event, which ran from April 27 to 29 in the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place, featured hundreds of booths with products and information on environmentally friendly ways to live and shop. It also proved its serious commitment to walking the green walk by using Bullfrog Power, an electricity retailer that only uses water- and wind- powered generators, providing carbon-free electricity.
Shannon Beahen, Ottawa Xpress
How we die says a lot about how we live
This issue is our first Art of Living special and for it we’ve chosen stories that look at some unique or artful ways some of us choose to live: It may be where we skateboard, where we meet others of the same ideology, or where we drink coffee and wait for genius inspiration to strike. And though the photograph on the cover seems contrary to the theme of the special, it’s not; the way we choose to say goodbye is often reflective of how we’ve chosen to live. (Matt Harrison)
Eco-friendly dying
By Peter Hadzipetros, CBC News
You’ve done your bit for the environment during your lifetime - minimizing to whatever extent possible your consumption of non-renewable resources and your discharge of stuff that is bad for the air we breathe and the water we drink.
By Allison Jones, Canadian Press
TORONTO (CP) - Cycling to work, using energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs, eating organic food - Canadians are trying harder these days to be conscientious consumers.
But amid all this green living, just how green a legacy will we leave in death?
By HANK DANISEWSKI, SUN MEDIA
Some Londoners are opting for the simplest funeral possible - being cremated in cardboard box - a recycled cardboard box that sells for $195.
Dan Atkinson of London Cremation Services said environmental concerns are a growing issue as people plan their final exit.
“It comes up all the time when people make their arrangements,” he said.
Electronically translated (AKA, very poorly translated) from French
By Sophie Massé, Urbania
Raoul Bretzel and Anna Citelli, two Italian designers, are proud to present Capsuled it Mundi. An organic coffin. A large egg of bioplastic which can accommodate the body in foetal position
Le décès écologique expliqué aux vivants
Texte : Sophie Massé
Vous pourriez quitter votre vie terrestre réduit en compost, à bord d’un grand oeuf ou d’un sarcophage en papier recyclé. Et que diriez-vous de léguer votre ADN à une plante ?
Qualicum News. Parksville, B.C.
They say such nice things about people at their funerals.
Makes me sad to realize I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.
– Garrison Keillor
We humans do a lot of stupid things in a lot of stupid ways but few can match the way we let ourselves be treated after we croak. I’m talking about our terrestrial sendoff. Can you think of any other ritual as bizarre and illogical as the conventional burial experience?
By Bridget Wayland, Harrowsmith Country Life Magazine
You recycle. You carpool. You go organic. If you re an ecoconscious person, you try to minimize your impact on the planet every chance you get. How ironic, then, if all the virtuous principles you lived by get overturned in the end-the very end.