I just never know where my next blog topic is going to come from. Today, I was listening to an achieved episode of the radio show “Coast to Coast” and they were talking to journalist Tom Jokinen. Jokinen went undercover as an apprentice at a mortuary in order to write his book “Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaking-in-Training.”
Okay, all this may sound a bit morbid (actually, it was very interesting), but a topic was brought up that I never thought about – green burial.
There are many reasons someone might want a green burial. First of all, there is the cost. If you’ve buried anyone lately, you know the cost is enormous. You are looking at at least $10,000 and that is if you get out cheap. So, for some, being buried without all the bells and whistles in order to ease the financial strain death can put on the family is a great idea. Others like the idea of just returning to the earth naturally. You know, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And even others realize that we are simply running out of room to put everyone in the ground.
One thing became clear while listening to this broadcast – opinions on burial are changing. More and more people are being cremated, but as Jokinen pointed out, even that is not very green. I read a quote at Buzzle.com that said “The amount of non-renewable fossil fuel needed to cremate bodies in North America is equivalent to a car making 84 trips to the Moon and back…each year.”
I decided that, as a green blogger, it was my duty to investigate this and I found a lot of information. First of all, there may be more green cemeteries than you think. There are several that I found (from coast to coast – California to Ohio to Maine) and at least one current being built (in Colorado).
Tomorrow (if you have the constitution to stick around), I will tell you more about green burials.