“We need to change how we bury the dead” — Vox, 2017, 5:51 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2dvXWX3Sdw

Contributed by Mary Scafidi, Cabrini University

This is a video essay about the environmental damages of American burial customs. These expensive burials take up a lot of space, use lots of resources, and incorporate chemicals that could be harmful to the environment. An alternative is cremation, which is significantly less expensive but results in a large carbon footprint. Thankfully, alternative burial customs include liquid cremation, natural burials, and freeze-drying. Though some of these alternatives are not widely available, how can we change our death culture to make alternative options more appealing? Do you think that these alternatives will ever take off, or will we have to search for another alternative more fitting of American death norms?

From the video’s description: The modern way of burying a body, the "casket in the ground method" most of us are used to is horrible for the environment. It uses an incredible amount of resources, emits toxic pollutants into the air, and pumps the ground full of formaldehyde, which is known to cause cancer. It's also prohibitively expensive. The average cost of a modern funeral costs between $10,000 to $12,000. There are a number of greener options available though. Cremation uses less resources and requires less space than a traditional burial, but isn't perfect. There are more experimental methods on the horizon such as promession and alkaline hydrolysis. No matter which method we choose, it's clear that we need to reform how we bury the dead.