Mike Salisbury: Die Happy and Green

Guest Post by Mike Salisbury Mike Salisbury is a leading advocate of the natural burial movement in Canada. A full member of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects and the principal of Earthartist Landscape Architecture, he provides planning, design and consultation to groups throughout North America involved in establishing natural burial grounds.

Hundreds of news articles have been written about the emerging trend of natural burial in North America. From CNN to The New York Times and National Geographic Magazine to People Magazine, everybody seems to be talking about this “new” kind of funeral.

So what is a natural burial? In many ways, it’s a return to burial traditions we have maintained for thousands of years where the body is prepared without chemical preservatives and is buried in a simple shroud or biodegradable casket. However, the key difference with a modern natural burial is in how this very personal family ritual is used to the benefit of our community and indeed our planet.

By allowing our bodies to be returned to the earth and effectively become fertiliser for native trees, shrubs and flowers which are planted on or near the grave, a natural burial establishes a living memorial and helps form a protected wildlife preserve. A completed natural burial cemetery helps create a new ecosystem; an urban greenspace that is protected in perpetuity from the pressures of future development. For most people, a natural burial is about leaving a legacy, a simple and meaningful statement of personal values and a spiritually fulfilling alternative to the conventional funeral.

A funeral is a very personal choice. However, most people don’t give much consideration to the choice they make. With a typical modern funeral, the body is embalmed. Following the viewing, the body is sealed inside a metal casket or lacquered wooden coffin lined with plush satin and adorned with beautiful brass accessories, which is then lowered into a concrete vault and buried. The reinforced concrete tomb is covered with a ton of dirt, and planted with a monoculture of grass which is kept perpetually green with pest- and weed-killer.

Above ground, the local cemetery may look pastoral and natural however, below the surface it serves as a landfill of hazardous wastes and non-biodegradable materials. Outfitting these funerals demands the extraction and consumption of vast amounts of resources and leaves a trail of environmental damage in its wake. A 10-acre swath of cemetery ground will contain enough coffin wood to construct more than 40 homes, nearly 1,000 tons of casket steel and another 20,000 tons of concrete for vaults. Across North America, enough metal is diverted into coffin and vault production each year to build the Golden Gate Bridge, and enough concrete is used to build a two-lane highway from New York to Detroit.

More and more people are choosing cremation these days, and at first glance, cremation does seem like a more earth-friendly option. Like most modern, natural-gas devices, the technology is becoming more efficient and clean burning — however,  it is impossible to filter everything. According to the United Nations, crematoria contribute 0.2 percent of the global emission of dioxins and furans and are considered the second largest source of airborne mercury in Europe. 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!

In addition to the ecological and emotional benefits, green burials can often be friendlier to the pocketbook. What makes a natural burial different from a financial perspective is that the costs are better allocated, with money carrying on the legacy of the deceased by protecting green space instead of going towards the mark-up on expensive, unnecessary consumption.

In more ways than one, a natural burial can be a much more personal goodbye than we as a society might be used to. Families often take part in burying their dead or lowering them into the grave. Nothing throughout the process is considered hands-off or unorthodox. Natural burial is simply a natural, beautiful expression of letting go, helping friends and family move from grief of loss to a celebration of life.