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When I die,

2
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I would like for my body
to be laid out to be eaten by animals.

3
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Having your body laid out to be eaten
by animals is not for everyone.

4
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(Laughter)

5
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Maybe you have already had
the end-of-life talk with your family

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and decided on,
I don't know, cremation.

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And in the interest of full disclosure,

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what I am proposing for my dead body
is not strictly legal at the moment,

9
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but it's not without precedent.

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

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it's call exposure burial.

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In fact, it's likely happening
right now as we speak.

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In the mountainous regions of Tibet,

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they practice "sky burial,"

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a ritual where the body is left
to be consumed by vultures.

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In Mumbai, in India,
those who follow the Parsi religion

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put their dead in structures
called "Towers of Silence."

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These are interesting cultural tidbits,

19
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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.

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In America, our death traditions
have come to be chemical embalming,

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followed by burial at your local cemetery,

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or, more recently, cremation.

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I myself, am a recent vegetarian,

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

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frantically inhaling animals --

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as many as I could get my hands on.

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

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(Laughter)

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Am I not an animal?

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Biologically speaking,
are we not all, in this room, animals?

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Accepting the fact that we are animals

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has some potentially
terrifying consequences.

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

35
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just like any other creature on earth.

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For the last nine years,
I've worked in the funeral industry,

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first as a crematory operator,

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then as a mortician

39
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and most recently, as the owner
of my own funeral home.

40
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And I have some good news:

41
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if you're looking to avoid the whole
"doomed to decay and die" thing:

42
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you will have all the help
in the world in that avoidance

43
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from the funeral industry.

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It's a multi-billion-dollar industry,

45
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and its economic model
is based on the principle

46
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of protection, sanitation
and beautification of the corpse.

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Whether they mean to or not,

48
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the funeral industry promotes
this idea of human exceptionalism.

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It doesn't matter what it takes,

50
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how much it costs,

51
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how bad it is for the environment,

52
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we're going to do it
because humans are worth it!

53
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It ignores the fact

54
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that death can be an emotionally messy
and complex affair,

55
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and that there is beauty in decay --

56
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beauty in the natural return
to the earth from whence we came.

57
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Now, I don't want you to get me wrong --

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I absolutely understand
the importance of ritual,

59
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especially when it comes
to the people that we love.

60
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But we have to be able
to create and practice this ritual

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without harming the environment,

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which is why we need new options.

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So let's return to the idea 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

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

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with a rubber sealant.

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At the cemetery, on the day of burial,
that casket will be lowered

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into a large concrete or metal vault.

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We're wasting all of these resources --
concretes, metal, hardwoods --

71
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hiding them in vast
underground fortresses.

72
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When you choose burial at the cemetery,

73
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your dead body is not coming anywhere
near the dirt that surrounds it.

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Food for worms

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you are not.

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Next, the industry will sanitize
your body through embalming:

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the chemical preservation of the dead.

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This procedure drains your blood

79
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and replaces it with a toxic,
cancer-causing formaldehyde.

80
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They say they do this
for the public health

81
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because the dead body can be dangerous,

82
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but the doctors in this room will tell you

83
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that that claim would only apply

84
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if the person had died of some wildly
infectious disease, like Ebola.

85
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Even human decomposition,
which, let's be honest,

86
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is a little stinky and unpleasant,

87
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is perfectly safe.

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The bacteria that causes disease
is not the same bacteria

89
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that causes decomposition.

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Finally, the industry
will beautify the corpse.

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

92
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is not good enough as it is.

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They'll put it in makeup.

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They'll put it in a suit.

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

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just resting.

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Embalming is a cheat code,

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

99
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for all organic life on this planet.

100
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Now, if this system of beautification,
sanitation, protection

101
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doesn't appeal to you,

102
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you are not alone.

103
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There is a whole wave of people --

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funeral directors, designers,
environmentalists --

105
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trying to come up with a more
eco-friendly way of death.

106
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For these people, death is not necessarily

107
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a pristine, makeup,
powder-blue tuxedo kind of affair.

108
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There's no question

109
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that our current methods of death
are not particularly sustainable,

110
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what with the waste of resources
and our reliance on chemicals.

111
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Even cremation,

112
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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.

115
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So where do we go from here?

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

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hauling buckets of wood chips
in the summer sun.

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

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more accurately called
a "human decomposition facility."

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Bodies donated to science
are brought here,

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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,

125
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one was wearing purple pajamas,

126
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one still had blonde facial hair visible.

127
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The forensic aspect is really fascinating,

128
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but not actually why I was there.

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I was there because a colleague of mine
named Katrina Spade

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

131
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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

135
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where the family could come
and lay their dead loved one

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in a nutrient-rich mixture that would,
in four-to-six weeks,

137
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reduce the body -- bones
and all -- to soil.

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In those four-to-six weeks,

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your molecules become other molecules;

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you literally transform.

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How would this fit in
with the very recent desire

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a lot of people seem to have

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to be buried under a tree,

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or to become a tree when they die?

145
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In a traditional cremation,
the ashes that are left over --

146
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inorganic bone fragments --

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form a thick, chalky layer

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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,
if you actually become the soil,

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you can nourish the tree,

152
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and become the post-mortem contributor
you've always wanted to be --

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that you deserve to be.

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

155
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But what about the future of cemeteries?

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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.

158
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But what if we reframed it,

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

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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,

164
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it can't be touched,
it can't be developed on --

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hence the term, "conservation burial."

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

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"Hell no, I won't go!

168
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No, really -- I can't.
I'm decomposing under here."

169
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(Laughter)

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Any money that the family
gives to the cemetery

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would go back into protecting
and managing the land.

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

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The graves are scattered
about the property

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under elegant mounds,

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marked only by a rock
or a small metal disk,

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or sometimes only locatable by GPS.

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There's no embalming,

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no heavy, metal caskets.

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My funeral home sells a few caskets

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made out of things like
woven willow and bamboo,

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but honestly, most of our families
just choose a simple shroud.

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There are none of the big vaults
that most cemeteries require

183
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just because it makes it easier
for them to landscape.

184
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Families can come here;
they can luxuriate in nature;

185
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they can even plant a tree or a shrub,

186
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though only native plants
to the area are allowed.

187
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The dead then blend seamlessly
in with the landscape.

188
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There's hope in conservation cemeteries.

189
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They offer dedicated green space
in both urban and rural areas.

190
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They offer a chance to reintroduce
native plants and animals to a region.

191
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They offer public trails,

192
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places for spiritual practice,

193
00:10:34,991 --> 00:10:38,106
places for classes and events --

194
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places where nature and mourning meet.

195
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Most importantly,
they offer us, once again,

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a chance to just decompose
in a hole in the ground.

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The soil,

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let me tell you,

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has missed us.

200
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I think for a lot of people,

201
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they're starting to get the sense

202
00:11:00,832 --> 00:11:05,141
that our current funeral industry
isn't really working for them.

203
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For many of us,

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being sanitized and beautified
just doesn't reflect us.

205
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It doesn't reflect
what we stood for during our lives.

206
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Will changing the way we bury our dead
solve climate change?

207
00:11:20,449 --> 00:11:21,599
No.

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But it will make bold moves

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00:11:24,101 --> 00:11:27,631
in how we see ourselves
as citizens of this planet.

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If we can die in a way
that is more humble and self-aware,

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00:11:33,286 --> 00:11:35,786
I believe that we stand a chance.

212
00:11:36,232 --> 00:11:37,476
Thank you.

213
00:11:37,500 --> 00:11:40,741
(Applause)