It’s the no-carbon-footprint environmentalists I can’t stand
By Lisa-Ann, Scattershots from the road (blog)
Both my interest in genealogy and my Catholic faith have given me opportunity to reflect on the hereafter and memorials. I have long told my husband I want a simple burial, in a quiet setting. I prefer traditional cemeteries, but my grandparents are buried in a park-like, tree-filled cemetery, and it’s lovely:
I have come across several articles recently, including this one in the Seattle Times, about a new trend, the so-called “green burial” or “eco-burials.”
For centuries, a variety of cultures have chosen to bury their dead in shrouds or wooden boxes, without first infusing bodies with chemicals. But the green burial movement has taken the practice to a new level. Some cemeteries forbid the use of formaldehyde, concrete, metal or any other material not completely biodegradable.
In these burial grounds, graves are marked only with a plant or a stone natural to the area. Visitors use global-positioning equipment to find resting places of their loved ones.
I think that how we treat the dead is a very important matter. In Catholic terms, one of the corporal acts of mercy requires us to bury the dead. But beyond that — we are made in the image of God, and therefore the way we treat a dead human body says something about something important. The idea of shoveling someone into a hole, without a gravestone or any way to memorialize their life — that act says that a human being is unimportant. That it’s better to forget he or she was even here. That oblivion is all there is in store of us. That not leaving a carbon footprint is waaaay more important that remembering a human being.
And that’s why I can’t stand this new breed of environmentalists who are convinced that humanity is a blight and that the earth would be better off without any of us.
Billy Campbell Responds to “It’s the no-carbon-footprint environmentalists I can’t stand”
Your portrayal of natural burial is nothing more than a misinformed caricature. You might be interested to know that we (Memorial Ecosystems) are opening a conservation burial ground with the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, a Trappist monastery near Atlanta.
Simple, natural burial is basically what the Trappists have done for centuries, although it can hardly be characterized as “ shoveling someone into a hole, without a gravestone or any way to memorialize their life”. I have been to a monk’s funeral, and I can assure you it is done with great love and respect. They are buried simply, into the ground, without a casket or shroud, in their vestments and with a cloth over the face. They do have crosses, although at the Honey Creek Woodlands (their project) the markers (if desired) will be simple stones. We have 3 interments there already and it is not even open yet. None of those buried were ardent “environmentalists”. They were deeply committed Catholics, and friends of the monastery.
You must not know that Memorial Ecosystems (and now the MHS) does not use GPS to find the graves, although we do have the locations in a GIS model and on paper. GPS does not work well under canopy. We have scattered boulders that will each be engraved with a picture (a leaf, a tree, a bird, etc). The graves (much less dense than at a contemporary cemetery) are located in reference to these easy to find navigation rocks. We can store all sorts of biographical information in this same system, by the way.
I am not sure why a $10,000 bronze casket and a $25,000 funeral is more respectful of the dead than helping to restore a field of rare wildflowers. To each his own, I guess. But to denigrate the choice that people make-to help a monastery, to restore a clear cut-is certainly disrespectful.
Sincerely,
Billy Campbell,
President, MEI