WEBVTT

00:00:01.388 --> 00:00:03.001
When I die,

00:00:03.025 --> 00:00:08.108
I would like for my body
to be laid out to be eaten by animals.

00:00:09.100 --> 00:00:13.811
Having your body laid out to be eaten
by animals is not for everyone.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:13.835 --> 00:00:14.868
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:14.892 --> 00:00:18.845
Maybe you have already had
the end-of-life talk with your family

00:00:18.869 --> 00:00:22.589
and decided on,
I don't know, cremation.

00:00:23.013 --> 00:00:25.579
And in the interest of full disclosure,

00:00:25.603 --> 00:00:31.591
what I am proposing for my dead body
is not strictly legal at the moment,

00:00:31.615 --> 00:00:33.606
but it's not without precedent.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:34.104 --> 00:00:37.692
We've been laying out our dead
for all of human history;

00:00:37.716 --> 00:00:39.785
it's call exposure burial.

00:00:40.276 --> 00:00:44.356
In fact, it's likely happening
right now as we speak.

00:00:44.864 --> 00:00:47.095
In the mountainous regions of Tibet,

00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:49.183
they practice "sky burial,"

00:00:49.207 --> 00:00:53.098
a ritual where the body is left
to be consumed by vultures.

00:00:53.725 --> 00:00:58.951
In Mumbai, in India,
those who follow the Parsi religion

00:00:58.975 --> 00:01:03.252
put their dead in structures
called "Towers of Silence."

00:01:03.667 --> 00:01:06.211
These are interesting cultural tidbits,

00:01:06.235 --> 00:01:10.683
but they just haven't really been
that popular in the Western world --

00:01:10.707 --> 00:01:12.407
they're not what you'd expect.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:13.158 --> 00:01:18.188
In America, our death traditions
have come to be chemical embalming,

00:01:18.212 --> 00:01:21.593
followed by burial at your local cemetery,

00:01:21.617 --> 00:01:23.937
or, more recently, cremation.

00:01:25.023 --> 00:01:28.286
I myself, am a recent vegetarian,

00:01:28.310 --> 00:01:31.929
which means I spent the first
30 years or so of my life

00:01:31.953 --> 00:01:34.160
frantically inhaling animals --

00:01:34.184 --> 00:01:36.162
as many as I could get my hands on.

00:01:36.886 --> 00:01:41.466
Why, when I die, should they not
have their turn with me?

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:41.490 --> 00:01:43.257
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:43.281 --> 00:01:45.161
Am I not an animal?

00:01:45.185 --> 00:01:49.949
Biologically speaking,
are we not all, in this room, animals?

00:01:51.129 --> 00:01:53.781
Accepting the fact that we are animals

00:01:53.805 --> 00:01:56.936
has some potentially
terrifying consequences.

00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:01.428
It means accepting
that we are doomed to decay and die,

00:02:01.452 --> 00:02:04.694
just like any other creature on earth.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:06.256 --> 00:02:09.870
For the last nine years,
I've worked in the funeral industry,

00:02:09.894 --> 00:02:12.025
first as a crematory operator,

00:02:12.049 --> 00:02:13.527
then as a mortician

00:02:13.551 --> 00:02:16.663
and most recently, as the owner
of my own funeral home.

00:02:17.342 --> 00:02:19.074
And I have some good news:

00:02:19.098 --> 00:02:24.670
if you're looking to avoid the whole
"doomed to decay and die" thing:

00:02:24.694 --> 00:02:28.910
you will have all the help
in the world in that avoidance

00:02:28.934 --> 00:02:30.711
from the funeral industry.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:31.820 --> 00:02:33.985
It's a multi-billion-dollar industry,

00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:36.993
and its economic model
is based on the principle

00:02:37.017 --> 00:02:42.496
of protection, sanitation
and beautification of the corpse.

00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:45.782
Whether they mean to or not,

00:02:45.806 --> 00:02:50.299
the funeral industry promotes
this idea of human exceptionalism.

00:02:50.816 --> 00:02:52.458
It doesn't matter what it takes,

00:02:52.482 --> 00:02:53.774
how much it costs,

00:02:53.798 --> 00:02:55.756
how bad it is for the environment,

00:02:55.780 --> 00:02:59.053
we're going to do it
because humans are worth it!

00:02:59.947 --> 00:03:01.535
It ignores the fact

00:03:01.559 --> 00:03:06.646
that death can be an emotionally messy
and complex affair,

00:03:06.670 --> 00:03:09.214
and that there is beauty in decay --

00:03:09.238 --> 00:03:13.651
beauty in the natural return
to the earth from whence we came.

00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:17.096
Now, I don't want you to get me wrong --

00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:20.107
I absolutely understand
the importance of ritual,

00:03:20.131 --> 00:03:23.232
especially when it comes
to the people that we love.

00:03:23.256 --> 00:03:26.791
But we have to be able
to create and practice this ritual

00:03:26.815 --> 00:03:28.596
without harming the environment,

00:03:28.620 --> 00:03:31.559
which is why we need new options.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:32.415 --> 00:03:37.455
So let's return to the idea of protection,
sanitation and beautification.

00:03:37.479 --> 00:03:39.255
We'll start with a dead body.

00:03:39.852 --> 00:03:42.871
The funeral industry
will protect your dead body

00:03:42.895 --> 00:03:47.736
by offering to sell your family a casket
made of hardwood or metal

00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:49.639
with a rubber sealant.

00:03:50.263 --> 00:03:53.834
At the cemetery, on the day of burial,
that casket will be lowered

00:03:53.858 --> 00:03:56.995
into a large concrete or metal vault.

00:03:57.753 --> 00:04:01.677
We're wasting all of these resources --
concretes, metal, hardwoods --

00:04:01.701 --> 00:04:05.466
hiding them in vast
underground fortresses.

00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:08.848
When you choose burial at the cemetery,

00:04:08.872 --> 00:04:14.165
your dead body is not coming anywhere
near the dirt that surrounds it.

00:04:14.750 --> 00:04:16.304
Food for worms

00:04:16.328 --> 00:04:17.505
you are not.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:18.657 --> 00:04:23.476
Next, the industry will sanitize
your body through embalming:

00:04:23.500 --> 00:04:25.701
the chemical preservation of the dead.

00:04:26.306 --> 00:04:28.240
This procedure drains your blood

00:04:28.264 --> 00:04:32.566
and replaces it with a toxic,
cancer-causing formaldehyde.

00:04:33.649 --> 00:04:35.992
They say they do this
for the public health

00:04:36.016 --> 00:04:38.866
because the dead body can be dangerous,

00:04:38.890 --> 00:04:41.389
but the doctors in this room will tell you

00:04:41.413 --> 00:04:44.167
that that claim would only apply

00:04:44.191 --> 00:04:49.107
if the person had died of some wildly
infectious disease, like Ebola.

00:04:50.021 --> 00:04:53.260
Even human decomposition,
which, let's be honest,

00:04:53.284 --> 00:04:56.274
is a little stinky and unpleasant,

00:04:56.298 --> 00:04:58.041
is perfectly safe.

00:04:58.795 --> 00:05:03.303
The bacteria that causes disease
is not the same bacteria

00:05:03.327 --> 00:05:05.301
that causes decomposition.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:06.656 --> 00:05:10.596
Finally, the industry
will beautify the corpse.

00:05:11.181 --> 00:05:15.070
They'll tell you that the natural
dead body of your mother or father

00:05:15.094 --> 00:05:17.178
is not good enough as it is.

00:05:17.665 --> 00:05:19.393
They'll put it in makeup.

00:05:19.417 --> 00:05:21.208
They'll put it in a suit.

00:05:21.232 --> 00:05:25.171
They'll inject dyes so the person
looks a little more alive --

00:05:25.195 --> 00:05:26.481
just resting.

00:05:27.672 --> 00:05:29.938
Embalming is a cheat code,

00:05:29.962 --> 00:05:34.359
providing the illusion that death
and then decay are not the natural end

00:05:34.383 --> 00:05:37.268
for all organic life on this planet.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:38.609 --> 00:05:43.627
Now, if this system of beautification,
sanitation, protection

00:05:43.651 --> 00:05:45.844
doesn't appeal to you,

00:05:45.868 --> 00:05:47.267
you are not alone.

00:05:47.830 --> 00:05:49.806
There is a whole wave of people --

00:05:49.830 --> 00:05:52.794
funeral directors, designers,
environmentalists --

00:05:52.818 --> 00:05:56.629
trying to come up with a more
eco-friendly way of death.

00:05:57.381 --> 00:05:59.863
For these people, death is not necessarily

00:05:59.887 --> 00:06:04.079
a pristine, makeup,
powder-blue tuxedo kind of affair.

00:06:04.746 --> 00:06:06.144
There's no question

00:06:06.168 --> 00:06:10.095
that our current methods of death
are not particularly sustainable,

00:06:10.119 --> 00:06:13.755
what with the waste of resources
and our reliance on chemicals.

00:06:14.498 --> 00:06:15.840
Even cremation,

00:06:15.864 --> 00:06:19.582
which is usually considered
the environmentally friendly option,

00:06:19.606 --> 00:06:21.844
uses, per cremation,

00:06:21.868 --> 00:06:26.768
the natural gas equivalent
of a 500-mile car trip.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:27.928 --> 00:06:30.482
So where do we go from here?

00:06:31.368 --> 00:06:34.720
Last summer, I was in the mountains
of North Carolina,

00:06:34.744 --> 00:06:38.091
hauling buckets of wood chips
in the summer sun.

00:06:38.741 --> 00:06:42.930
I was at Western Carolina University
at their "Body Farm,"

00:06:42.954 --> 00:06:46.786
more accurately called
a "human decomposition facility."

00:06:47.794 --> 00:06:50.039
Bodies donated to science
are brought here,

00:06:50.063 --> 00:06:54.087
and their decay is studied
to benefit the future of forensics.

00:06:54.820 --> 00:06:56.108
On this particular day,

00:06:56.132 --> 00:07:00.703
there were 12 bodies laid out
in various stages of decomposition.

00:07:00.727 --> 00:07:03.008
Some were skeletonized,

00:07:03.032 --> 00:07:05.404
one was wearing purple pajamas,

00:07:05.428 --> 00:07:08.164
one still had blonde facial hair visible.

00:07:09.210 --> 00:07:12.119
The forensic aspect is really fascinating,

00:07:12.143 --> 00:07:14.539
but not actually why I was there.

00:07:14.563 --> 00:07:17.825
I was there because a colleague of mine
named Katrina Spade

00:07:17.849 --> 00:07:22.189
is attempting to create a system,
not of cremating the dead,

00:07:22.213 --> 00:07:24.163
but composting the dead.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:24.925 --> 00:07:27.443
She calls the system "Recomposition,"

00:07:27.467 --> 00:07:31.139
and we've been doing it with cattle
and other livestock for years.

00:07:31.645 --> 00:07:33.169
She imagines a facility

00:07:33.193 --> 00:07:35.819
where the family could come
and lay their dead loved one

00:07:35.843 --> 00:07:40.274
in a nutrient-rich mixture that would,
in four-to-six weeks,

00:07:40.298 --> 00:07:43.902
reduce the body -- bones
and all -- to soil.

00:07:44.802 --> 00:07:46.247
In those four-to-six weeks,

00:07:46.271 --> 00:07:48.729
your molecules become other molecules;

00:07:48.753 --> 00:07:50.491
you literally transform.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:51.706 --> 00:07:54.759
How would this fit in
with the very recent desire

00:07:54.783 --> 00:07:56.385
a lot of people seem to have

00:07:56.409 --> 00:07:57.914
to be buried under a tree,

00:07:57.938 --> 00:07:59.999
or to become a tree when they die?

00:08:00.710 --> 00:08:04.240
In a traditional cremation,
the ashes that are left over --

00:08:04.264 --> 00:08:06.250
inorganic bone fragments --

00:08:06.274 --> 00:08:08.525
form a thick, chalky layer

00:08:08.549 --> 00:08:11.772
that, unless distributed
in the soil just right,

00:08:11.796 --> 00:08:14.973
can actually hurt or kill the tree.

00:08:15.552 --> 00:08:18.857
But if you're recomposed,
if you actually become the soil,

00:08:18.881 --> 00:08:20.415
you can nourish the tree,

00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:24.128
and become the post-mortem contributor
you've always wanted to be --

00:08:24.152 --> 00:08:25.945
that you deserve to be.

NOTE Paragraph

00:08:26.818 --> 00:08:30.161
So that's one option
for the future of cremation.

00:08:30.185 --> 00:08:32.570
But what about the future of cemeteries?

00:08:33.112 --> 00:08:37.177
There are a lot of people who think
we shouldn't even have cemeteries anymore

00:08:37.201 --> 00:08:39.240
because we're running out of land.

00:08:39.977 --> 00:08:42.190
But what if we reframed it,

00:08:42.214 --> 00:08:44.819
and the corpse wasn't the land's enemy,

00:08:44.843 --> 00:08:46.802
but its potential savior?

00:08:47.805 --> 00:08:50.358
I'm talking about conservation burial,

00:08:50.382 --> 00:08:54.441
where large swaths of land
are purchased by a land trust.

00:08:55.274 --> 00:09:00.104
The beauty of this is that once you plant
a few dead bodies in that land,

00:09:00.128 --> 00:09:03.146
it can't be touched,
it can't be developed on --

00:09:03.170 --> 00:09:05.968
hence the term, "conservation burial."

00:09:05.992 --> 00:09:09.874
It's the equivalent of chaining yourself
to a tree post-mortem --

00:09:09.898 --> 00:09:12.362
"Hell no, I won't go!

00:09:12.386 --> 00:09:15.431
No, really -- I can't.
I'm decomposing under here."

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:15.455 --> 00:09:16.550
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:16.574 --> 00:09:18.895
Any money that the family
gives to the cemetery

00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:22.428
would go back into protecting
and managing the land.

00:09:23.376 --> 00:09:27.775
There are no headstones
and no graves in the typical sense.

00:09:27.799 --> 00:09:29.946
The graves are scattered
about the property

00:09:29.970 --> 00:09:31.530
under elegant mounds,

00:09:31.554 --> 00:09:35.235
marked only by a rock
or a small metal disk,

00:09:35.259 --> 00:09:38.157
or sometimes only locatable by GPS.

00:09:38.743 --> 00:09:40.417
There's no embalming,

00:09:40.441 --> 00:09:42.640
no heavy, metal caskets.

00:09:43.300 --> 00:09:45.505
My funeral home sells a few caskets

00:09:45.529 --> 00:09:49.281
made out of things like
woven willow and bamboo,

00:09:49.305 --> 00:09:53.028
but honestly, most of our families
just choose a simple shroud.

00:09:53.979 --> 00:09:57.819
There are none of the big vaults
that most cemeteries require

00:09:57.843 --> 00:10:01.162
just because it makes it easier
for them to landscape.

00:10:02.101 --> 00:10:05.633
Families can come here;
they can luxuriate in nature;

00:10:05.657 --> 00:10:08.334
they can even plant a tree or a shrub,

00:10:08.358 --> 00:10:11.360
though only native plants
to the area are allowed.

00:10:12.054 --> 00:10:15.793
The dead then blend seamlessly
in with the landscape.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:16.259 --> 00:10:19.410
There's hope in conservation cemeteries.

00:10:20.091 --> 00:10:24.913
They offer dedicated green space
in both urban and rural areas.

00:10:25.747 --> 00:10:30.109
They offer a chance to reintroduce
native plants and animals to a region.

00:10:30.922 --> 00:10:32.895
They offer public trails,

00:10:32.919 --> 00:10:34.967
places for spiritual practice,

00:10:34.991 --> 00:10:38.106
places for classes and events --

00:10:38.130 --> 00:10:41.282
places where nature and mourning meet.

00:10:42.451 --> 00:10:45.847
Most importantly,
they offer us, once again,

00:10:45.871 --> 00:10:50.998
a chance to just decompose
in a hole in the ground.

00:10:51.966 --> 00:10:53.355
The soil,

00:10:53.379 --> 00:10:55.047
let me tell you,

00:10:55.071 --> 00:10:56.600
has missed us.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:57.155 --> 00:10:59.187
I think for a lot of people,

00:10:59.211 --> 00:11:00.808
they're starting to get the sense

00:11:00.832 --> 00:11:05.141
that our current funeral industry
isn't really working for them.

00:11:06.298 --> 00:11:07.488
For many of us,

00:11:07.512 --> 00:11:11.923
being sanitized and beautified
just doesn't reflect us.

00:11:11.947 --> 00:11:15.176
It doesn't reflect
what we stood for during our lives.

00:11:16.014 --> 00:11:19.933
Will changing the way we bury our dead
solve climate change?

00:11:20.449 --> 00:11:21.599
No.

00:11:22.052 --> 00:11:24.077
But it will make bold moves

00:11:24.101 --> 00:11:27.631
in how we see ourselves
as citizens of this planet.

00:11:28.654 --> 00:11:33.262
If we can die in a way
that is more humble and self-aware,

00:11:33.286 --> 00:11:35.786
I believe that we stand a chance.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:36.232 --> 00:11:37.476
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:37.500 --> 00:11:40.741
(Applause)