Facts About Bones and Bodies After Death

The latest issue of Discover magazine (which is not online at this point, but here's the magazine's page in general) had some startling facts I never knew.

First, there was an article on how archaeologists are now comparing skeletal remains to the bones of modern athletes instead of those of average modern humans because they're a better match for comparative lived reality. From this, I learned that both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals from 40,000–120,000 years ago covered more ground more than even the average cross-country athlete who's done 80–100 miles a week since adolescence, and that Central European farming women from 2,000–7,000 years ago had more upper body strength than a range of competitive women athletes, including rowers. (I wonder if they checked on shot-putters.)

Second, an article called "Life After Death" gave a nice summary of all the ways people in the U.S. (and some in other parts of the world) are making after-death arrangements that help the earth instead of deplete and hurt it. From this, I learned:

• Our bodies, on average at death, contain 82 pounds of water and 54 pounds of other mass "we borrowed from the plants and animals we ate while we were alive," none of which is returned in a useful way to the earth if we are embalmed or cremated.
• Embalming was not common until the Civil War, when many bodies had to be shipped home over distances and there wasn't enough ice. And then Abraham Lincoln's embalmed body was taken on tour around the country, creating a giant advertisement for the practice. 
• "Soon, morticians were holding fairs to show off their skills, and chemical companies were sponsoring 'best preserved body' contests to drive discovery of the best mixture of fluids. Many embalmers originally claimed that preservation was permanent, until lawsuits from horrified families who kept loved ones at home too long forced them to cease these promises."
• Cremation not only requires energy to burn the body, it also puts out greenhouse gases. And if a body is embalmed before being cremated, you're also burning formaldehyde and putting that into the air.
• Wood funeral pyres are driving deforestation in parts of the world, too. 
• Conventional cemeteries often require caskets to be placed inside metal vaults underground so  the ground doesn't settle as the casket decomposes... Because the ground has to be easy to mow, of course. Even more waste.
• The Green Burial Council estimates that conventional burial in the U.S. annually uses almost 65,000 tons of steel, more than 1.5 million tons of concrete, 20 million feet of hardwood, 17,000 tons of copper and bronze, and more than 800,000 gallons of toxic fluids for embalming.  Plus the lead, zinc, and cobalt that are used in some casket designs. 

I'm a fan of Recompose, a Seattle-based public benefit company that has a section in the article. Its founder, architect Katrina Spade, has been developing a way and a building structure to allow for our bodies to be composted in a ceremonial way that honors our lives and deaths.

Here's a calculator that was part of the Discover article:


It looks like Minnesota's options at this point are somewhat limited. This locally based green burial page has some info, generally about burial within cemeteries, such as Roselawn in Roseville or Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Garden in West St. Paul. So-called green cremation is available at a couple of Minnesota sites, also. According to that link, the chemical process has a 75% lower carbon footprint than flame-based cremation.

I hope to hold out for composting in some form or other, ideally somewhere other than an official cemetery.