0:00:01.429,0:00:03.165
When I die,

0:00:03.165,0:00:08.135
I would like for my body[br]to be laid out to be eaten by animals.

0:00:09.137,0:00:14.021
Having your body laid out to be[br]eaten by animals is not for everyone.

0:00:14.830,0:00:18.646
Maybe you have already had[br]the end-of-life talk with your family,

0:00:18.646,0:00:20.339
and decided on --

0:00:20.339,0:00:21.377
I don't know --

0:00:21.377,0:00:22.589
cremation.

0:00:23.117,0:00:25.706
And in the interest of full disclosure,

0:00:25.706,0:00:31.780
what I am proposing for my dead body[br]is not strictly legal at the moment,

0:00:31.780,0:00:33.771
but it's not without precedent.

0:00:34.271,0:00:37.882
We've been laying out our dead[br]for all of human history;

0:00:37.882,0:00:39.951
it's call exposure burial.

0:00:40.427,0:00:44.792
In fact, it's likely happening[br]right now as we speak.

0:00:45.055,0:00:47.380
In the mountainous regions of Tibet,

0:00:47.380,0:00:49.467
they practice sky burial,

0:00:49.467,0:00:53.157
a ritual where the body is left[br]to be consumed by vultures.

0:00:53.833,0:00:54.899
In Mumbai,

0:00:54.899,0:00:57.046
in India,

0:00:57.046,0:00:59.222
those who follow the Parsee religion

0:00:59.222,0:01:03.499
put their dead in structures[br]called Towers of Silence.

0:01:03.802,0:01:06.450
These are interesting cultural tidbits,

0:01:06.450,0:01:10.961
but they just haven't really been[br]that popular in the Western world --

0:01:10.961,0:01:13.015
they're not what you'd expect.

0:01:13.261,0:01:14.286
In America,

0:01:14.286,0:01:16.994
our death traditions have come to be

0:01:16.994,0:01:21.865
chemical embalming followed by[br]burial at your local cemetery,

0:01:21.865,0:01:24.185
or more recently, cremation.

0:01:25.190,0:01:28.476
I myself, am a recent vegetarian,

0:01:28.476,0:01:32.118
which means I spent the first[br]30 years or so of my life

0:01:32.118,0:01:34.348
frantically inhaling animals --

0:01:34.348,0:01:36.460
as many as I could get my hands on.

0:01:36.958,0:01:41.537
Why, when I die, should they not[br]have their turn with me?

0:01:41.928,0:01:42.930
(Laughter)

0:01:43.401,0:01:45.168
Am I not an animal?

0:01:45.407,0:01:46.758
Biologically speaking,

0:01:46.758,0:01:50.185
are we not all, in this room, animals?

0:01:51.272,0:01:54.041
Accepting the fact that we are animals

0:01:54.041,0:01:56.966
has some potentially[br]terrifying consequences.

0:01:57.520,0:02:01.735
It means accepting that we[br]are doomed to decay and die,

0:02:01.735,0:02:04.977
just like creature on Earth.

0:02:06.256,0:02:07.789
For the last nine years,

0:02:07.789,0:02:10.194
I've worked in the funeral industry.

0:02:10.194,0:02:12.348
First as a crematory operator,

0:02:12.348,0:02:13.849
then as a mortician,

0:02:13.849,0:02:16.961
and most recently as the owner[br]of my own funeral home.

0:02:17.414,0:02:19.418
And I have some good news:

0:02:19.418,0:02:24.798
if you're looking to avoid the whole[br]"doomed to decay and die" thing,

0:02:24.798,0:02:29.069
you will have all the help[br]in the world in that avoidance

0:02:29.069,0:02:31.176
from the funeral industry.

0:02:31.916,0:02:34.217
It's a multi-billion-dollar industry,

0:02:34.217,0:02:37.224
and its economic model[br]is based on the principle

0:02:37.224,0:02:42.462
of protection, sanitation[br]and beautification of the corpse.

0:02:43.689,0:02:46.087
Whether they mean to or not,

0:02:46.087,0:02:50.580
the funeral industry promotes[br]this idea of human exceptionalism.

0:02:50.943,0:02:52.761
It doesn't matter what it takes,

0:02:52.761,0:02:54.076
how much it costs,

0:02:54.076,0:02:56.057
how bad it is for the environment --

0:02:56.057,0:02:59.330
we're going to do it because[br]humans are worth it.

0:03:00.051,0:03:06.833
It ignores the fact that death can be[br]an emotionally messy and complex affair,

0:03:06.833,0:03:09.546
and that there is beauty in decay --

0:03:09.546,0:03:13.959
beauty in the natural return[br]to the Earth from whence we came.

0:03:15.307,0:03:17.040
I don't want you to get me wrong --

0:03:17.040,0:03:20.211
I absolutely understand[br]the importance of ritual,

0:03:20.211,0:03:23.633
especially when it comes[br]to the people that we love.

0:03:23.633,0:03:27.030
But we have to be able to create[br]and practice this ritual

0:03:27.030,0:03:28.972
without harming the environment,

0:03:28.972,0:03:31.715
which is why we need new options.

0:03:32.582,0:03:34.439
So, let's return to the idea

0:03:34.439,0:03:37.479
of protection, sanitation[br]and beautification.

0:03:37.479,0:03:39.613
We'll start with a dead body.

0:03:39.963,0:03:43.186
The funeral industry[br]will protect your dead body

0:03:43.186,0:03:48.050
by offering to sell your family a casket[br]made of hardwood or metal

0:03:48.050,0:03:50.292
with rubber sealant.

0:03:50.470,0:03:51.474
At the cemetery,

0:03:51.474,0:03:52.473
on the day of burial,

0:03:52.473,0:03:57.237
that casket will be lowered[br]into a large concrete or metal vault.

0:03:57.968,0:03:59.928
We're wasting all of these resources --

0:03:59.928,0:04:01.914
concretes, metal, hardwoods --

0:04:01.914,0:04:05.908
hiding them in vast,[br]underground fortresses.

0:04:06.451,0:04:09.120
When you choose burial at the cemetery,

0:04:09.120,0:04:14.225
your dead body is not coming anywhere[br]near the dirt that surrounds it.

0:04:14.750,0:04:16.550
Food for worms --

0:04:16.550,0:04:17.910
you are not.

0:04:18.800,0:04:23.642
Next, the industry will sanitize[br]your body through embalming:

0:04:23.642,0:04:26.213
the chemical preservation of the dead.

0:04:26.537,0:04:28.578
This procedure drains your blood,

0:04:28.578,0:04:32.880
and replaces it with a toxic,[br]cancer-causing formaldehyde.

0:04:33.832,0:04:36.305
They say the do this for the public health

0:04:36.305,0:04:39.286
because the dead body can be dangerous,

0:04:39.286,0:04:41.660
but the doctors in this room will tell you

0:04:41.660,0:04:44.316
that that claim would only apply

0:04:44.316,0:04:49.502
if the person had died of some wildly[br]infectious disease, like Ebola.

0:04:50.148,0:04:52.028
Even human decomposition,

0:04:52.028,0:04:53.588
which let's be honest,

0:04:53.588,0:04:56.501
is a little stinky and unpleasant,

0:04:56.501,0:04:58.244
is perfectly safe.

0:04:58.974,0:05:02.198
The bacteria that causes disease

0:05:02.198,0:05:05.646
is not the same bacteria[br]that causes decomposition.

0:05:06.688,0:05:10.938
Finally, the industry[br]will beautify the corpse.

0:05:11.253,0:05:15.215
They'll tell you that the natural[br]dead body of your mother or father

0:05:15.215,0:05:17.377
is not good enough as it is.

0:05:17.665,0:05:19.639
They'll put it in makeup;

0:05:19.639,0:05:21.453
they'll put it in a suit.

0:05:21.453,0:05:25.415
They'll inject dyes so the person[br]looks a little more alive --

0:05:25.415,0:05:26.948
just resting.

0:05:27.823,0:05:30.112
Embalming is a cheat code

0:05:30.112,0:05:34.532
providing the illusion that death[br]and then decay are not the natural end

0:05:34.532,0:05:37.417
for all organic life on this planet.

0:05:38.776,0:05:43.817
Now, if this system of beautification,[br]sanitation, protection

0:05:43.817,0:05:46.033
doesn't appeal to you,

0:05:46.033,0:05:47.666
you are not alone.

0:05:48.053,0:05:50.052
There is a whole wave of people --

0:05:50.052,0:05:53.039
funeral directors, designers,[br]environmentalists --

0:05:53.039,0:05:56.850
trying to come up with a more[br]eco-friendly way of death.

0:05:57.440,0:05:58.444
For these people,

0:05:58.444,0:06:00.881
death is not necessarily a pristine,

0:06:00.881,0:06:04.495
makeup, powder-blue tuxedo kind of affair.

0:06:04.945,0:06:06.366
There's no question

0:06:06.366,0:06:10.377
that our current methods of death[br]are not particularly sustainable,

0:06:10.377,0:06:14.013
what with the waste of resources[br]and our reliance on chemicals.

0:06:14.618,0:06:16.155
Even cremation,

0:06:16.155,0:06:19.896
which is usually considered[br]the environmentally-friendly option,

0:06:19.896,0:06:22.089
uses, per cremation,

0:06:22.089,0:06:26.989
the natural gas equivalent[br]of a 500-mile car trip.

0:06:28.039,0:06:30.593
So, where do we go from here?

0:06:31.527,0:06:34.902
Last summer I was in the mountains[br]of North Carolina,

0:06:34.902,0:06:38.249
hauling buckets of wood chips[br]in the summer sun.

0:06:38.900,0:06:43.058
I was at Western Carolina University[br]at their "Body Farm,"

0:06:43.058,0:06:46.890
more accurately called a human[br]decomposition facility.

0:06:47.945,0:06:50.126
Bodies donated to science[br]are brought here,

0:06:50.126,0:06:54.150
and their decay is studied to benefit[br]the future of forensics.

0:06:54.876,0:06:56.187
On this particular day,

0:06:56.187,0:07:00.292
there were 12 bodies laid out[br]in various stages of decomposition.

0:07:01.236,0:07:03.239
Some were skeletonized,

0:07:03.239,0:07:05.634
one was wearing purple pajamas,

0:07:05.634,0:07:08.370
one still had blonde facial hair visible.

0:07:09.282,0:07:12.214
The forensic aspect is really fascinating,

0:07:12.214,0:07:14.359
but not actually why I was there.

0:07:14.714,0:07:16.777
I was there because a colleague of mine,

0:07:16.777,0:07:18.259
named Katrina Spade,

0:07:18.259,0:07:22.404
is attempting to create a system[br]not of cremating the dead,

0:07:22.404,0:07:24.354
but composting the dead.

0:07:24.925,0:07:27.751
She calls the system Recomposition,

0:07:27.751,0:07:31.131
and we've been doing it with cattle[br]and other livestock for years.

0:07:31.725,0:07:35.999
She imagines a facility where the family[br]could come and lay their dead loved one

0:07:35.999,0:07:38.935
in a nutrient-rich mixture that would,

0:07:38.935,0:07:40.595
in four-to-six weeks,

0:07:40.595,0:07:41.685
reduce the body --

0:07:41.685,0:07:43.104
bones and all --

0:07:43.104,0:07:44.396
to soil.

0:07:44.906,0:07:46.367
In those four-to-six weeks,

0:07:46.374,0:07:48.853
your molecules become other molecules;

0:07:48.855,0:07:50.593
you literally transform.

0:07:51.786,0:07:56.584
How would this fit in with the very recent[br]desire a lot of people seem to have

0:07:56.584,0:07:58.112
to be buried under a tree,

0:07:58.112,0:08:00.405
or to become a tree when they die?

0:08:00.790,0:08:02.863
In a traditional cremation,

0:08:02.863,0:08:04.686
the ashes that left over --

0:08:04.686,0:08:06.504
inorganic bone fragments --

0:08:06.504,0:08:08.778
form a thick chalky layer

0:08:08.778,0:08:12.024
that unless distributed[br]in the soil just right,

0:08:12.024,0:08:15.201
can actually hurt or kill the tree.

0:08:15.735,0:08:17.109
But if you're recomposed,

0:08:17.109,0:08:19.032
if you actually become the soil,

0:08:19.032,0:08:20.731
you can nourish the tree,

0:08:20.731,0:08:24.443
and become the post-mortem contributor[br]you've always wanted to be --

0:08:24.443,0:08:26.452
that you desreve to be.

0:08:26.818,0:08:29.782
So that's one option[br]for the future of cremation.

0:08:30.241,0:08:32.882
But what about the future of cemeteries?

0:08:33.366,0:08:37.328
There are a lot of people who think[br]we shouldn't even have cemeteries anymore

0:08:37.328,0:08:39.904
because we're "running out of land."

0:08:40.104,0:08:42.536
But what if we reframed it,

0:08:42.536,0:08:45.164
and the corpse wasn't the land's enemy,

0:08:45.164,0:08:47.501
but its potential savior?

0:08:47.869,0:08:50.694
I'm talking about conservation burial,

0:08:50.694,0:08:54.753
where large swaths of land[br]are purchased by a land trust.

0:08:55.457,0:09:00.230
The beauty of this is that once you plant[br]a few dead bodies in that land,

0:09:00.230,0:09:01.682
it can't be touched,

0:09:01.682,0:09:03.335
it can't be developed on --

0:09:03.335,0:09:04.331
hence the term,

0:09:04.331,0:09:05.838
conservation burial.

0:09:06.128,0:09:10.165
It's the equivalent of chaining yourself[br]to a tree post-mortem --

0:09:10.165,0:09:12.762
"Hell no, I won't go --

0:09:12.762,0:09:15.742
no really, I can't,[br]I'm decomposing under here."

0:09:16.614,0:09:18.958
Any money that the family[br]gives to the cemetery

0:09:18.958,0:09:22.467
would go back into protecting[br]and managing the land.

0:09:23.512,0:09:27.934
There are no headstones[br]and no graves in the typical sense.

0:09:27.934,0:09:30.104
The graves are scattered[br]about the property

0:09:30.104,0:09:31.795
under elegant mounds,

0:09:31.795,0:09:35.355
marked only by a rock[br]or a small metal disk,

0:09:35.355,0:09:38.253
or sometimes only locatable by GPS.

0:09:38.879,0:09:40.714
There's no embalming,

0:09:40.714,0:09:43.658
no heavy, metal caskets.

0:09:43.658,0:09:45.886
My funeral home sells a few caskets

0:09:45.886,0:09:49.457
made out of things like[br]woven willow and bamboo,

0:09:49.457,0:09:53.536
but honestly, most of our families[br]just choose a simple shroud.

0:09:54.170,0:09:58.136
There are none of the big vaults[br]that most cemeteries require

0:09:58.136,0:10:01.455
just because it makes it easier[br]for them to landscape.

0:10:02.197,0:10:03.702
Families can come here;

0:10:03.702,0:10:05.915
they can luxuriate in nature;

0:10:05.915,0:10:08.615
they can even plant a tree or a shrub,

0:10:08.615,0:10:11.818
though only native plants[br]to the area are allowed.

0:10:12.158,0:10:15.897
The dead then blend seamlessly[br]in with the landscape.

0:10:16.339,0:10:19.833
There's hope in conservation cemeteries.

0:10:20.139,0:10:24.961
They offer dedicated green space[br]in both urban and rural areas.

0:10:25.851,0:10:30.213
They offer a chance to reintroduce[br]native plants and animals to a region.

0:10:31.049,0:10:33.045
They offer public trails,

0:10:33.045,0:10:35.166
places for spiritual practice,

0:10:35.166,0:10:38.441
places for classes and events --

0:10:38.441,0:10:41.593
places where nature and mourning meet.

0:10:42.451,0:10:44.033
Most importantly,

0:10:44.033,0:10:46.198
they offer us once again,

0:10:46.198,0:10:51.246
a chance to just decompose[br]in a hole in the ground.

0:10:52.094,0:10:53.409
The soil,

0:10:53.409,0:10:55.275
let me tell you,

0:10:55.275,0:10:56.804
has missed us.

0:10:57.299,0:10:59.354
I think for a lot of people,

0:10:59.354,0:11:00.966
they're starting to get the sense

0:11:00.966,0:11:05.275
that our current funeral industry[br]isn't really working for them.

0:11:06.298,0:11:07.617
For many of us,

0:11:07.617,0:11:12.051
being sanitized and beautified[br]just doesn't reflect us.

0:11:12.051,0:11:15.789
It doesn't reflect what we[br]stood for during our lives.

0:11:16.181,0:11:20.100
Will changing the way we bury[br]our dead solve climate change?

0:11:20.505,0:11:21.553
No.

0:11:22.163,0:11:24.431
But it will make bold moves

0:11:24.431,0:11:27.961
in how we see ourselves[br]as citizens of this planet.

0:11:28.726,0:11:33.524
If we can die in a way that is more[br]humble and self-aware,

0:11:33.524,0:11:36.024
I believe that we stand a chance.

0:11:36.368,0:11:37.774
Thank you.

0:11:37.774,0:11:39.502
(Applause)