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  3. Green Burials: Thinking Outside the BoxA)When Bonnie Ramey

Green Burials: Thinking Outside the BoxA)When Bonnie Ramey

游客2023-06-30  6
问题                     Green Burials: Thinking Outside the Box
A)When Bonnie Ramey buried her husband two years ago, she knew she didn’t want to have a typical funeral ceremony at a landscaped cemetery plot. "The commercialization of funerals is getting out of control," she said. " They get you at your weakest point. In my opinion, they’re just ripping off the dead. " Bonnie and her husband, Charles, both nature lovers, spent many hours hiking through the wooded Appalachian foothills surrounding their home in rural South Carolina. So after Charles died, Bonnie’s choice of burial spots was an easy one—down the road from her house is Memorial Ecosystems, one of the only places in the United States devoted to environmentally sensitive or "green" burials.
Simple Living, Simple Dying
B)The ideas behind "green" burials are simple. Bodies are not embalmed(对尸体进行防腐处理). Elaborate caskets made of metal or rare tropical hardwoods are replaced with fabric burial shrouds or simple, biodegradable(生物所能分解的)coffins made of wood or cardboard. Concrete grave liners or vaults that prevent the ground above the coffin from settling are avoided. Perhaps most significantly, in place of carefully trimmed cemetery grounds, native plants and wildflowers are allowed to flourish, turning the burial ground into a nature preserve. "It preserves the land and the habitat for the animals," said Ramey. "Our habitat is going quickly, and if we don’t preserve it, we won’t have any. " Though there are over 200 green cemeteries in Great Britain, the movement is unknown in the United States. South Carolina, Florida, California and Texas have the only four green cemeteries currently operating in America. Several more green burial facilities are being planned throughout the country.
Everything Old Is New Again
C)"A green burial is not about extra work—it’s about not doing extra work," said Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a group of grassroots organizations interested in alternatives to the choices offered by the funeral industry. And for advocates of green burials, these aren’t unique or unusual ceremonies. " What people need to remember is that this is not new," said Slocum. "This is a return to what we used to do before the commercial funeral industry came along. "
D)Indeed, many religious traditions follow the basic principles of green burials. Traditional Jewish burial rites, for example, view embalming as an insult to the dead. Only coffins made completely of wood are allowed—a metal coffin would be a disrespectful effort to artificially preserve the body. The modern practice of embalming is relatively new. It was largely unknown until the Civil War, when bodies of Union soldiers were often embalmed in preparation for the long trip home from Southern battlefields. Civil War-area embalming fluids contained poisonous arsenic(砒霜). Formaldehyde(甲醛)is now used as a preservative(防腐剂), but formaldehyde is not without its risks.
Does Embalming Cause Cancer?
E)Studies by the National Cancer Institute have found that embalmers and anatomists(解剖学家), exposed daily to formaldehyde, are at an increased risk for leukemia and brain cancer. NCI investigators concluded that exposure to formaldehyde may particularly cause myeloid(骨髓的)leukemia, though further studies are needed. The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists formaldehyde as a known matter which can cause cancer. It is listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as a suspected carcinogen(致癌物质), and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration has established a permissible exposure limit of 0. 75 parts per million averaged over an 8-hour work shift. Consumers are often confused about state and local requirements for dealing with dead bodies, and it’s generally assumed that health codes require embalming.
Not So, According to Slocum
F)"Embalming is never routinely required by law," said Slocum, adding that cold storage is an acceptable alternative for preserving a body, in addition to being much safer and less invasive. "No law requires a casket," Slocum adds. "And a grave liner or vault—nowhere are they required by law. "
Voicing Environmental Concerns
G)In addition to concerns over formaldehyde exposure, some suspect that the preservative may be leaking into groundwater supplies from the millions of bodies buried every year. The fact that elevated levels of arsenic have been found in the groundwater near Civil War-era cemeteries buttresses the argument. Formaldehyde has been found in groundwater sampling wells near cemeteries. But scientific data are limited, and formaldehyde’s long-term health effects in the environment are believed to be minor—formaldehyde evaporates readily and is biodegradable.
H)But the environmental effects of cemeteries go beyond formaldehyde. Some land-use planners are concerned about the impact of turning vast tracts of land into heavily landscaped cemeteries, and the resulting use of fertilizers, pesticides, water supplies and gasoline-powered landscaping equipment. "Cemeteries just seemed like an ecological wasteland," said David Schroeder, a landscape architect-in-training who specializes in green burial sites. " There was a period of time in the 1800s when cemeteries were designed like parks," said Schroeder. " They were like a garden. Now, most are about economics. "
I)As an example of the economics that drive burial practices, Schroeder points to the cemetery vaults and grave liners that are not required by the law, but are required by most cemeteries. " Cemetery vaults are designed to keep the ground flat to make things easier for the lawn mowers," he said. In Schroeder’s model for green burials, the topsoil is separated from other layers of soil, and is returned to its original place after the body is placed in the grave. " The top layers are a biological hotbed. Seeds and microbes(微生物)are kept near the surface," he said.
J)Preserving undeveloped land was foremost in John Wilkerson’s mind when he and his brother created Glendale Memorial Gardens, a green burial site in north Florida. One of the last wishes of Wilkerson’s father was that the family farm be protected from development. Both of his parents are now buried on the site. "It was the best answer we could find to keep this farm from being developed," said Wilkerson. "It took their death to speed action. They did not like the idea of the circus, the modern-day funeral," said Wilkerson. "They thought it was out of control, it was ridiculous. " But in addition to the environmental benefits, most families participating in green burials agree that the cost savings are significant. " There is, in fact, a large percentage of American people who are resistant to the large $ 10,000 funeral, especially the embalming. We don’t even allow it," said Wilkerson. Estimates vary from state to state, but the average cost of a typical funeral in a commercial cemetery is between $5,000 and $ 10,000. A green burial, however, is usually less than $ 3,000. "We have allowed the commercial funeral industry to convince us that the only way to measure our love for our dead is through the amount of conspicuous consumption that we lavish on them," said Slocum. [br] According to Schroeder, the topsoil of a standard green cemetery should be a biological hotbed.
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