Overdoing Global Warming

Filed under: General News — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on February 29, 2008 @ 7:00 pm CET

People really go insane over the environment, don’t they?

Meanwhile, some funeral providers are providing natural burials — the body is not embalmed or cremated, but instead buried in a simple casket or shroud in protected green space.

Why?

Since it takes two to four hours at temperatures ranging from 1,400 and 2,100 F, or 760 and 1,150 C, the estimated energy required to cremate one body is roughly equal to the amount of fuel required to drive 4,800 miles, or 7,725 kilometers.

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide are spewed in large volume, along with carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, particulate matter, heavy metals, dioxins and furans.

There is also release of cadmium and lead from pacemakers and mercury from dental amalgams. Total mercury emissions from cremation in Canada for 2004 were between 240 and 907 pounds, or 109 and 411.6 kilograms.

Nice.

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1 Claudia

March 1, 2008 @ 12:37 am CET

Hmmm, I would think that burying unprotected dead bodies out in the wilderness would be a health hazard. In fact I didn’t even know it was legal.

Me, I’m clear on the subject. Any useful organs should go towards transplant, and whatever is left over cremated, and the ashes used to fertilize a batch of red daisies (my favorite flower). I have no need for post-mortem real estate, I think that the beautiful parks in cemeteries would better serve living children.