No, I’m not talking about Irish Pride.
It is this article that has me wondering why the eco-weenies can’t even leave people alone when they’re dead?
Canadians urged to go green even when they’re gone
North Americans who spend their lives reducing, reusing and recycling can keep doing their bit for the environment after they die, if Europe’s “green funeral” trend makes its way across the Atlantic.
Canadian activists say green send-offs could help the dead contribute to a sustainable environment, with funerals that use shrouds or biodegradable containers and involve no embalming, no headstones and no grave linings.
“Having a green burial is one more thing a person can do to lessen the impact we’re having on our environment,” said Dorothy Yada of the Memorial Society of British Columbia.
“Environmental organizations should take it on as something they could add to their list of things to do … if people asked for it more often, (the cemeteries and funeral parlours) would do it.”
Great. The last sentence shows that they do actually know how market theory works, even if they repeated say that it doesn’t work whenever they’re degrading the capitalist model.
Back on the main point of the linked article, seeing as how this week’s Quotes of the Day prove that they truly believe humans are a disease to the planet, maybe they could “urge” by example.
Oh, and the first jackass in the local media who says I need to “die green” will cause me to call my lawyer and order a change to my official burial instructions of an extra cord to be added to my funeral pyre. I’ve already got three, so watch your step, greenies, I may end up needing to contract Weyerhaeuser for my burial needs.
Murdering innocent forests and adding more CO2 and particulates than they could have nightmares about. That’s how I’m going out. Vader’s pyre will seem a matchhead.
I’m sorry, but a good chunk of our funeral industry is bullshit (and Penn & Teller have done a Bullshit! episode telling you why). I’m dead; why do I need a nice coffin with satin or silk linning and padding? I only need the padding if I’m a living goth kid who likes to sleep in coffins for kicks. Why do I need a hermetically-sealed steel casket to preserve my remains when I know they’ll rot? I don’t believe in a bodily ressurection like Christians do, so I feel no need for all my material remains to be gathered in one spot. Embalming; most of the organs and fluids removed to prevent rotting, and chemicals added to preserve the body long enough for viewing by the surviving family. They use formaldahyde for that. I have no problem with preserving stuff in formaldahyde if you’re going to preserve it for years, but in the weeks time usually passing between death and burial, I don’t think that’s for me. No, I want my remains to be completely fresh and chemical-free for the worms which will eat my corpse.
Go figure the greenies would take a good idea (no embalming, bio-degradable coffins) and then go a few steps stupider like no headstone or insisting people “die green”. You just know someone in CA is going to try and pass “green death” legislation in a couple of years. It should be left up to the pre-deceased, or their family, whomever makes the arrangements. If someone wants a hermetically-sealed coffin which will keep their corpse together for the benefit of future archaeologists, fine. If someone truly believes in “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” and wants to be set allight with truckloads of wood and jet fuel, so be it.
For the record, not all Christians believe in a literal body resurrection. Many (most?) of us believe in a resurrection of the spirit.
Given the funeral pyre theory, it might be good to use kerosene for embalming.
You’re right; not all Christians believe in bodily ressurection. I thought I’d put “some Christians” in there, but I didn’t. My mistake.
I’m not completely sure all the chemicals used in the embalming process are safe to put in the ground; in this area I need to do some research. But I figure if the chemicals aren’t safe, this is why they’d have grave liners, to keep said chemicals out of the surrounding soil. If I’m wrong on that, please correct me.
Still irks me the damn enviromentalists want to poke their noses and legislation in to all aspects of my life, even up to my burial.
I don’t understand what their problem is with standard burials. Even metal coffins are biodegradable. How does that expression go….”Ashes to ashes, rust to rust”?
Just shoot me into the sun, I think by then I may want off the planet…
My family and I have no intentions of being buried. Just harvest whatever organs the hospital can use and incinerate the rest of me. I’m not going to be needing my body anymore after I’ve died. Fancy coffins are just a way for the still living to feel better about their loved one and a way for the coffin seller to make more money.