1
00:00:01,429 --> 00:00:03,165
When I die,

2
00:00:03,165 --> 00:00:08,135
I would like for my body
to be laid out to be eaten by animals.

3
00:00:09,137 --> 00:00:14,021
Having your body laid out to be
eaten by animals is not for everyone.

4
00:00:14,830 --> 00:00:18,646
Maybe you have already had
the end-of-life talk with your family,

5
00:00:18,646 --> 00:00:20,339
and decided on --

6
00:00:20,339 --> 00:00:21,377
I don't know --

7
00:00:21,377 --> 00:00:22,589
cremation.

8
00:00:23,117 --> 00:00:25,706
And in the interest of full disclosure,

9
00:00:25,706 --> 00:00:31,780
what I am proposing for my dead body
is not strictly legal at the moment,

10
00:00:31,780 --> 00:00:33,771
but it's not without precedent.

11
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We've been laying out our dead
for all of human history;

12
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it's call exposure burial.

13
00:00:40,427 --> 00:00:44,792
In fact, it's likely happening
right now as we speak.

14
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In the mountainous regions of Tibet,

15
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they practice sky burial,

16
00:00:49,467 --> 00:00:53,157
a ritual where the body is left
to be consumed by vultures.

17
00:00:53,833 --> 00:00:54,899
In Mumbai,

18
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in India,

19
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those who follow the Parsee religion

20
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put their dead in structures
called Towers of Silence.

21
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These are interesting cultural tidbits,

22
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but they just haven't really been
that popular in the Western world --

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they're not what you'd expect.

24
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In America,

25
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our death traditions have come to be

26
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chemical embalming followed by
burial at your local cemetery,

27
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or more recently, cremation.

28
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I myself, am a recent vegetarian,

29
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which means I spent the first
30 years or so of my life

30
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frantically inhaling animals --

31
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as many as I could get my hands on.

32
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Why, when I die, should they not
have their turn with me?

33
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(Laughter)

34
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Am I not an animal?

35
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Biologically speaking,

36
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are we not all, in this room, animals?

37
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Accepting the fact that we are animals

38
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has some potentially
terrifying consequences.

39
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It means accepting that we
are doomed to decay and die,

40
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just like creature on Earth.

41
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For the last nine years,

42
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I've worked in the funeral industry.

43
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First as a crematory operator,

44
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then as a mortician,

45
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and most recently as the owner
of my own funeral home.

46
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And I have some good news:

47
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if you're looking to avoid the whole
"doomed to decay and die" thing,

48
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you will have all the help
in the world in that avoidance

49
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from the funeral industry.

50
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It's a multi-billion-dollar industry,

51
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and its economic model
is based on the principle

52
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of protection, sanitation
and beautification of the corpse.

53
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Whether they mean to or not,

54
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the funeral industry promotes
this idea of human exceptionalism.

55
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It doesn't matter what it takes,

56
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how much it costs,

57
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how bad it is for the environment --

58
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we're going to do it because
humans are worth it.

59
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It ignores the fact that death can be
an emotionally messy and complex affair,

60
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and that there is beauty in decay --

61
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beauty in the natural return
to the Earth from whence we came.

62
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I don't want you to get me wrong --

63
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I absolutely understand
the importance of ritual,

64
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especially when it comes
to the people that we love.

65
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But we have to be able to create
and practice this ritual

66
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without harming the environment,

67
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which is why we need new options.

68
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So, let's return to the idea

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of protection, sanitation
and beautification.

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We'll start with a dead body.

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The funeral industry
will protect your dead body

72
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by offering to sell your family a casket
made of hardwood or metal

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with rubber sealant.

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At the cemetery,

75
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on the day of burial,

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that casket will be lowered
into a large concrete or metal vault.

77
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We're wasting all of these resources --

78
00:03:59,928 --> 00:04:01,914
concretes, metal, hardwoods --

79
00:04:01,914 --> 00:04:05,908
hiding them in vast,
underground fortresses.

80
00:04:06,451 --> 00:04:09,120
When you choose burial at the cemetery,

81
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your dead body is not coming anywhere
near the dirt that surrounds it.

82
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Food for worms --

83
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you are not.

84
00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:23,642
Next, the industry will sanitize
your body through embalming:

85
00:04:23,642 --> 00:04:26,213
the chemical preservation of the dead.

86
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This procedure drains your blood,

87
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and replaces it with a toxic,
cancer-causing formaldehyde.

88
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They say the do this for the public health

89
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because the dead body can be dangerous,

90
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but the doctors in this room will tell you

91
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that that claim would only apply

92
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if the person had died of some wildly
infectious disease, like Ebola.

93
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Even human decomposition,

94
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which let's be honest,

95
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is a little stinky and unpleasant,

96
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is perfectly safe.

97
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The bacteria that causes disease

98
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is not the same bacteria
that causes decomposition.

99
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Finally, the industry
will beautify the corpse.

100
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They'll tell you that the natural
dead body of your mother or father

101
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is not good enough as it is.

102
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They'll put it in makeup;

103
00:05:19,639 --> 00:05:21,453
they'll put it in a suit.

104
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They'll inject dyes so the person
looks a little more alive --

105
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just resting.

106
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Embalming is a cheat code

107
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providing the illusion that death
and then decay are not the natural end

108
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for all organic life on this planet.

109
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Now, if this system of beautification,
sanitation, protection

110
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doesn't appeal to you,

111
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you are not alone.

112
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There is a whole wave of people --

113
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funeral directors, designers,
environmentalists --

114
00:05:53,039 --> 00:05:56,850
trying to come up with a more
eco-friendly way of death.

115
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For these people,

116
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death is not necessarily a pristine,

117
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makeup, powder-blue tuxedo kind of affair.

118
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There's no question

119
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that our current methods of death
are not particularly sustainable,

120
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what with the waste of resources
and our reliance on chemicals.

121
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Even cremation,

122
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which is usually considered
the environmentally-friendly option,

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uses, per cremation,

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the natural gas equivalent
of a 500-mile car trip.

125
00:06:28,039 --> 00:06:30,593
So, where do we go from here?

126
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Last summer I was in the mountains
of North Carolina,

127
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hauling buckets of wood chips
in the summer sun.

128
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I was at Western Carolina University
at their "Body Farm,"

129
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more accurately called a human
decomposition facility.

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Bodies donated to science
are brought here,

131
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and their decay is studied to benefit
the future of forensics.

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On this particular day,

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there were 12 bodies laid out
in various stages of decomposition.

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Some were skeletonized,

135
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one was wearing purple pajamas,

136
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one still had blonde facial hair visible.

137
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The forensic aspect is really fascinating,

138
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but not actually why I was there.

139
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I was there because a colleague of mine,

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named Katrina Spade,

141
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is attempting to create a system
not of cremating the dead,

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but composting the dead.

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She calls the system Recomposition,

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and we've been doing it with cattle
and other livestock for years.

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She imagines a facility where the family
could come and lay their dead loved one

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in a nutrient-rich mixture that would,

147
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in four-to-six weeks,

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reduce the body --

149
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bones and all --

150
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to soil.

151
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In those four-to-six weeks,

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your molecules become other molecules;

153
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you literally transform.

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How would this fit in with the very recent
desire a lot of people seem to have

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to be buried under a tree,

156
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or to become a tree when they die?

157
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In a traditional cremation,

158
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the ashes that left over --

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inorganic bone fragments --

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form a thick chalky layer

161
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that unless distributed
in the soil just right,

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can actually hurt or kill the tree.

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But if you're recomposed,

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if you actually become the soil,

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you can nourish the tree,

166
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and become the post-mortem contributor
you've always wanted to be --

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that you desreve to be.

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So that's one option
for the future of cremation.

169
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But what about the future of cemeteries?

170
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There are a lot of people who think
we shouldn't even have cemeteries anymore

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because we're "running out of land."

172
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But what if we reframed it,

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and the corpse wasn't the land's enemy,

174
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but its potential savior?

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I'm talking about conservation burial,

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where large swaths of land
are purchased by a land trust.

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The beauty of this is that once you plant
a few dead bodies in that land,

178
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it can't be touched,

179
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it can't be developed on --

180
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hence the term,

181
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conservation burial.

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It's the equivalent of chaining yourself
to a tree post-mortem --

183
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"Hell no, I won't go --

184
00:09:12,762 --> 00:09:15,742
no really, I can't,
I'm decomposing under here."

185
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Any money that the family
gives to the cemetery

186
00:09:18,958 --> 00:09:22,467
would go back into protecting
and managing the land.

187
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There are no headstones
and no graves in the typical sense.

188
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The graves are scattered
about the property

189
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under elegant mounds,

190
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marked only by a rock
or a small metal disk,

191
00:09:35,355 --> 00:09:38,253
or sometimes only locatable by GPS.

192
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There's no embalming,

193
00:09:40,714 --> 00:09:43,658
no heavy, metal caskets.

194
00:09:43,658 --> 00:09:45,886
My funeral home sells a few caskets

195
00:09:45,886 --> 00:09:49,457
made out of things like
woven willow and bamboo,

196
00:09:49,457 --> 00:09:53,536
but honestly, most of our families
just choose a simple shroud.

197
00:09:54,170 --> 00:09:58,136
There are none of the big vaults
that most cemeteries require

198
00:09:58,136 --> 00:10:01,455
just because it makes it easier
for them to landscape.

199
00:10:02,197 --> 00:10:03,702
Families can come here;

200
00:10:03,702 --> 00:10:05,915
they can luxuriate in nature;

201
00:10:05,915 --> 00:10:08,615
they can even plant a tree or a shrub,

202
00:10:08,615 --> 00:10:11,818
though only native plants
to the area are allowed.

203
00:10:12,158 --> 00:10:15,897
The dead then blend seamlessly
in with the landscape.

204
00:10:16,339 --> 00:10:19,833
There's hope in conservation cemeteries.

205
00:10:20,139 --> 00:10:24,961
They offer dedicated green space
in both urban and rural areas.

206
00:10:25,851 --> 00:10:30,213
They offer a chance to reintroduce
native plants and animals to a region.

207
00:10:31,049 --> 00:10:33,045
They offer public trails,

208
00:10:33,045 --> 00:10:35,166
places for spiritual practice,

209
00:10:35,166 --> 00:10:38,441
places for classes and events --

210
00:10:38,441 --> 00:10:41,593
places where nature and mourning meet.

211
00:10:42,451 --> 00:10:44,033
Most importantly,

212
00:10:44,033 --> 00:10:46,198
they offer us once again,

213
00:10:46,198 --> 00:10:51,246
a chance to just decompose
in a hole in the ground.

214
00:10:52,094 --> 00:10:53,409
The soil,

215
00:10:53,409 --> 00:10:55,275
let me tell you,

216
00:10:55,275 --> 00:10:56,804
has missed us.

217
00:10:57,299 --> 00:10:59,354
I think for a lot of people,

218
00:10:59,354 --> 00:11:00,966
they're starting to get the sense

219
00:11:00,966 --> 00:11:05,275
that our current funeral industry
isn't really working for them.

220
00:11:06,298 --> 00:11:07,617
For many of us,

221
00:11:07,617 --> 00:11:12,051
being sanitized and beautified
just doesn't reflect us.

222
00:11:12,051 --> 00:11:15,789
It doesn't reflect what we
stood for during our lives.

223
00:11:16,181 --> 00:11:20,100
Will changing the way we bury
our dead solve climate change?

224
00:11:20,505 --> 00:11:21,553
No.

225
00:11:22,163 --> 00:11:24,431
But it will make bold moves

226
00:11:24,431 --> 00:11:27,961
in how we see ourselves
as citizens of this planet.

227
00:11:28,726 --> 00:11:33,524
If we can die in a way that is more
humble and self-aware,

228
00:11:33,524 --> 00:11:36,024
I believe that we stand a chance.

229
00:11:36,368 --> 00:11:37,774
Thank you.

230
00:11:37,774 --> 00:11:39,502
(Applause)