1
00:00:01,388 --> 00:00:03,001
When I die,

2
00:00:03,025 --> 00:00:08,108
I would like for my body
to be laid out to be eaten by animals.

3
00:00:09,100 --> 00:00:13,811
Having your body laid out to be eaten
by animals is not for everyone.

4
00:00:13,835 --> 00:00:14,868
(Laughter)

5
00:00:14,892 --> 00:00:18,845
Maybe you have already had
the end-of-life talk with your family

6
00:00:18,869 --> 00:00:22,589
and decided on --
I don't know -- cremation.

7
00:00:23,013 --> 00:00:25,579
And in the interest of full disclosure,

8
00:00:25,603 --> 00:00:31,591
what I am proposing for my dead body
is not strictly legal at the moment,

9
00:00:31,615 --> 00:00:33,606
but it's not without precedent.

10
00:00:34,104 --> 00:00:37,692
We've been laying out our dead
for all of human history;

11
00:00:37,716 --> 00:00:39,785
it's call exposure burial.

12
00:00:40,276 --> 00:00:44,356
In fact, it's likely happening
right now as we speak.

13
00:00:44,864 --> 00:00:47,095
In the mountainous regions of Tibet,

14
00:00:47,119 --> 00:00:49,183
they practice "sky burial,"

15
00:00:49,207 --> 00:00:53,098
a ritual where the body is left
to be consumed by vultures.

16
00:00:53,725 --> 00:00:58,951
In Mumbai, in India,
those who follow the Parsi religion

17
00:00:58,975 --> 00:01:03,252
put their dead in structures
called "Towers of Silence."

18
00:01:03,667 --> 00:01:06,211
These are interesting cultural tidbits,

19
00:01:06,235 --> 00:01:10,683
but they just haven't really been
that popular in the Western world --

20
00:01:10,707 --> 00:01:12,407
they're not what you'd expect.

21
00:01:13,158 --> 00:01:18,188
In America, our death traditions
have come to be chemical embalming,

22
00:01:18,212 --> 00:01:21,593
followed by burial at your local cemetery,

23
00:01:21,617 --> 00:01:23,937
or, more recently, cremation.

24
00:01:25,023 --> 00:01:28,286
I myself, am a recent vegetarian,

25
00:01:28,310 --> 00:01:31,929
which means I spent the first
30 years or so of my life

26
00:01:31,953 --> 00:01:34,160
frantically inhaling animals --

27
00:01:34,184 --> 00:01:36,162
as many as I could get my hands on.

28
00:01:36,886 --> 00:01:41,466
Why, when I die, should they not
have their turn with me?

29
00:01:41,490 --> 00:01:43,257
(Laughter)

30
00:01:43,281 --> 00:01:45,161
Am I not an animal?

31
00:01:45,185 --> 00:01:49,949
Biologically speaking,
are we not all, in this room, animals?

32
00:01:51,129 --> 00:01:53,781
Accepting the fact that we are animals

33
00:01:53,805 --> 00:01:56,936
has some potentially
terrifying consequences.

34
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:01,428
It means accepting
that we are doomed to decay and die,

35
00:02:01,452 --> 00:02:04,694
just like any other creature on Earth.

36
00:02:06,256 --> 00:02:09,870
For the last nine years,
I've worked in the funeral industry,

37
00:02:09,894 --> 00:02:12,025
first as a crematory operator,

38
00:02:12,049 --> 00:02:13,527
then as a mortician

39
00:02:13,551 --> 00:02:16,663
and most recently, as the owner
of my own funeral home.

40
00:02:17,342 --> 00:02:19,074
And I have some good news:

41
00:02:19,098 --> 00:02:24,670
if you're looking to avoid the whole
"doomed to decay and die" thing:

42
00:02:24,694 --> 00:02:28,910
you will have all the help
in the world in that avoidance

43
00:02:28,934 --> 00:02:30,711
from the funeral industry.

44
00:02:31,820 --> 00:02:33,985
It's a multi-billion-dollar industry,

45
00:02:34,009 --> 00:02:36,993
and its economic model
is based on the principle

46
00:02:37,017 --> 00:02:42,496
of protection, sanitation
and beautification of the corpse.

47
00:02:43,610 --> 00:02:45,782
Whether they mean to or not,

48
00:02:45,806 --> 00:02:50,299
the funeral industry promotes
this idea of human exceptionalism.

49
00:02:50,816 --> 00:02:52,458
It doesn't matter what it takes,

50
00:02:52,482 --> 00:02:53,774
how much it costs,

51
00:02:53,798 --> 00:02:55,756
how bad it is for the environment,

52
00:02:55,780 --> 00:02:59,053
we're going to do it
because humans are worth it!

53
00:02:59,947 --> 00:03:01,535
It ignores the fact

54
00:03:01,559 --> 00:03:06,646
that death can be an emotionally messy
and complex affair,

55
00:03:06,670 --> 00:03:09,214
and that there is beauty in decay --

56
00:03:09,238 --> 00:03:13,651
beauty in the natural return
to the Earth from whence we came.

57
00:03:15,180 --> 00:03:17,096
Now, I don't want you to get me wrong --

58
00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:20,107
I absolutely understand
the importance of ritual,

59
00:03:20,131 --> 00:03:23,232
especially when it comes
to the people that we love.

60
00:03:23,256 --> 00:03:26,791
But we have to be able
to create and practice this ritual

61
00:03:26,815 --> 00:03:28,596
without harming the environment,

62
00:03:28,620 --> 00:03:31,559
which is why we need new options.

63
00:03:32,415 --> 00:03:37,455
So let's return to the idea of protection,
sanitation and beautification.

64
00:03:37,479 --> 00:03:39,255
We'll start with a dead body.

65
00:03:39,852 --> 00:03:42,871
The funeral industry
will protect your dead body

66
00:03:42,895 --> 00:03:47,736
by offering to sell your family a casket
made of hardwood or metal

67
00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:49,639
with a rubber sealant.

68
00:03:50,263 --> 00:03:53,834
At the cemetery, on the day of burial,
that casket will be lowered

69
00:03:53,858 --> 00:03:56,995
into a large concrete or metal vault.

70
00:03:57,753 --> 00:04:01,677
We're wasting all of these resources --
concretes, metal, hardwoods --

71
00:04:01,701 --> 00:04:05,466
hiding them in vast
underground fortresses.

72
00:04:06,300 --> 00:04:08,848
When you choose burial at the cemetery,

73
00:04:08,872 --> 00:04:14,165
your dead body is not coming anywhere
near the dirt that surrounds it.

74
00:04:14,750 --> 00:04:16,304
Food for worms,

75
00:04:16,328 --> 00:04:17,505
you are not.

76
00:04:18,657 --> 00:04:23,476
Next, the industry will sanitize
your body through embalming:

77
00:04:23,500 --> 00:04:25,701
the chemical preservation of the dead.

78
00:04:26,306 --> 00:04:28,240
This procedure drains your blood,

79
00:04:28,264 --> 00:04:32,566
and replaces it with a toxic,
cancer-causing formaldehyde.

80
00:04:33,649 --> 00:04:35,992
They say they do this
for the public health

81
00:04:36,016 --> 00:04:38,866
because the dead body can be dangerous,

82
00:04:38,890 --> 00:04:41,389
but the doctors in this room will tell you

83
00:04:41,413 --> 00:04:44,167
that that claim would only apply

84
00:04:44,191 --> 00:04:49,107
if the person had died of some wildly
infectious disease, like Ebola.

85
00:04:50,021 --> 00:04:53,260
Even human decomposition,
which, let's be honest,

86
00:04:53,284 --> 00:04:56,274
is a little stinky and unpleasant,

87
00:04:56,298 --> 00:04:58,041
is perfectly safe.

88
00:04:58,795 --> 00:05:03,303
The bacteria that causes disease
is not the same bacteria

89
00:05:03,327 --> 00:05:05,301
that causes decomposition.

90
00:05:06,656 --> 00:05:10,596
Finally, the industry
will beautify the corpse.

91
00:05:11,181 --> 00:05:15,070
They'll tell you that the natural
dead body of your mother or father

92
00:05:15,094 --> 00:05:17,178
is not good enough as it is.

93
00:05:17,665 --> 00:05:19,393
They'll put it in makeup.

94
00:05:19,417 --> 00:05:21,208
They'll put it in a suit.

95
00:05:21,232 --> 00:05:25,171
They'll inject dyes so the person
looks a little more alive --

96
00:05:25,195 --> 00:05:26,481
just resting.

97
00:05:27,672 --> 00:05:29,938
Embalming is a cheat code,

98
00:05:29,962 --> 00:05:34,359
providing the illusion that death
and then decay are not the natural end

99
00:05:34,383 --> 00:05:37,268
for all organic life on this planet.

100
00:05:38,609 --> 00:05:43,627
Now, if this system of beautification,
sanitation, protection

101
00:05:43,651 --> 00:05:45,844
doesn't appeal to you,

102
00:05:45,868 --> 00:05:47,267
you are not alone.

103
00:05:47,830 --> 00:05:49,806
There is a whole wave of people --

104
00:05:49,830 --> 00:05:52,794
funeral directors, designers,
environmentalists --

105
00:05:52,818 --> 00:05:56,629
trying to come up with a more
eco-friendly way of death.

106
00:05:57,381 --> 00:05:59,863
For these people, death is not necessarily

107
00:05:59,887 --> 00:06:04,079
a pristine, makeup,
powder-blue tuxedo kind of affair.

108
00:06:04,746 --> 00:06:06,144
There's no question

109
00:06:06,168 --> 00:06:10,095
that our current methods of death
are not particularly sustainable,

110
00:06:10,119 --> 00:06:13,755
what with the waste of resources
and our reliance on chemicals.

111
00:06:14,498 --> 00:06:15,840
Even cremation,

112
00:06:15,864 --> 00:06:19,582
which is usually considered
the environmentally friendly option,

113
00:06:19,606 --> 00:06:21,844
uses, per cremation,

114
00:06:21,868 --> 00:06:26,768
the natural gas equivalent
of a 500-mile car trip.

115
00:06:27,928 --> 00:06:30,482
So where do we go from here?

116
00:06:31,368 --> 00:06:34,720
Last summer, I was in the mountains
of North Carolina,

117
00:06:34,744 --> 00:06:38,091
hauling buckets of wood chips
in the summer sun.

118
00:06:38,741 --> 00:06:42,930
I was at Western Carolina University
at their "Body Farm,"

119
00:06:42,954 --> 00:06:46,786
more accurately called
a "human decomposition facility."

120
00:06:47,794 --> 00:06:50,039
Bodies donated to science
are brought here,

121
00:06:50,063 --> 00:06:54,087
and their decay is studied
to benefit the future of forensics.

122
00:06:54,820 --> 00:06:56,108
On this particular day,

123
00:06:56,132 --> 00:07:00,703
there were 12 bodies laid out
in various stages of decomposition.

124
00:07:00,727 --> 00:07:03,008
Some were skeletonized,

125
00:07:03,032 --> 00:07:05,404
one was wearing purple pajamas,

126
00:07:05,428 --> 00:07:08,164
one still had blonde facial hair visible.

127
00:07:09,210 --> 00:07:12,119
The forensic aspect is really fascinating,

128
00:07:12,143 --> 00:07:14,539
but not actually why I was there.

129
00:07:14,563 --> 00:07:17,825
I was there because a colleague of mine
named Katrina Spade

130
00:07:17,849 --> 00:07:22,189
is attempting to create a system,
not of cremating the dead,

131
00:07:22,213 --> 00:07:24,163
but composting the dead.

132
00:07:24,925 --> 00:07:27,443
She calls the system "Recomposition,"

133
00:07:27,467 --> 00:07:31,139
and we've been doing it with cattle
and other livestock for years.

134
00:07:31,645 --> 00:07:33,169
She imagines a facility

135
00:07:33,193 --> 00:07:35,819
where the family could come
and lay their dead loved one

136
00:07:35,843 --> 00:07:40,274
in a nutrient-rich mixture that would,
in four-to-six weeks,

137
00:07:40,298 --> 00:07:43,902
reduce the body -- bones
and all -- to soil.

138
00:07:44,802 --> 00:07:46,247
In those four-to-six weeks,

139
00:07:46,271 --> 00:07:48,729
your molecules become other molecules;

140
00:07:48,753 --> 00:07:50,491
you literally transform.

141
00:07:51,706 --> 00:07:54,759
How would this fit in
with the very recent desire

142
00:07:54,783 --> 00:07:56,385
a lot of people seem to have

143
00:07:56,409 --> 00:07:57,914
to be buried under a tree,

144
00:07:57,938 --> 00:07:59,999
or to become a tree when they die?

145
00:08:00,710 --> 00:08:04,240
In a traditional cremation,
the ashes that are leftover --

146
00:08:04,264 --> 00:08:06,250
inorganic bone fragments --

147
00:08:06,274 --> 00:08:08,525
form a thick, chalky layer

148
00:08:08,549 --> 00:08:11,772
that, unless distributed
in the soil just right,

149
00:08:11,796 --> 00:08:14,973
can actually hurt or kill the tree.

150
00:08:15,552 --> 00:08:18,857
But if you're recomposed,
if you actually become the soil,

151
00:08:18,881 --> 00:08:20,415
you can nourish the tree,

152
00:08:20,439 --> 00:08:24,128
and become the post-mortem contributor
you've always wanted to be --

153
00:08:24,152 --> 00:08:25,945
that you deserve to be.

154
00:08:26,818 --> 00:08:30,161
So that's one option
for the future of cremation.

155
00:08:30,185 --> 00:08:32,570
But what about the future of cemeteries?

156
00:08:33,112 --> 00:08:37,177
There are a lot of people who think
we shouldn't even have cemeteries anymore

157
00:08:37,201 --> 00:08:39,240
because we're running out of land.

158
00:08:39,977 --> 00:08:42,190
But what if we reframed it,

159
00:08:42,214 --> 00:08:44,819
and the corpse wasn't the land's enemy,

160
00:08:44,843 --> 00:08:46,802
but its potential savior?

161
00:08:47,805 --> 00:08:50,358
I'm talking about conservation burial,

162
00:08:50,382 --> 00:08:54,441
where large swaths of land
are purchased by a land trust.

163
00:08:55,274 --> 00:09:00,104
The beauty of this is that once you plant
a few dead bodies in that land,

164
00:09:00,128 --> 00:09:03,146
it can't be touched,
it can't be developed on --

165
00:09:03,170 --> 00:09:05,968
hence the term, "conservation burial."

166
00:09:05,992 --> 00:09:09,874
It's the equivalent of chaining yourself
to a tree post-mortem --

167
00:09:09,898 --> 00:09:12,362
"Hell no, I won't go!

168
00:09:12,386 --> 00:09:15,431
No, really -- I can't.
I'm decomposing under here."

169
00:09:15,455 --> 00:09:16,550
(Laughter)

170
00:09:16,574 --> 00:09:18,895
Any money that the family
gives to the cemetery

171
00:09:18,919 --> 00:09:22,428
would go back into protecting
and managing the land.

172
00:09:23,376 --> 00:09:27,775
There are no headstones
and no graves in the typical sense.

173
00:09:27,799 --> 00:09:29,946
The graves are scattered
about the property

174
00:09:29,970 --> 00:09:31,530
under elegant mounds,

175
00:09:31,554 --> 00:09:35,235
marked only by a rock
or a small metal disk,

176
00:09:35,259 --> 00:09:38,157
or sometimes only locatable by GPS.

177
00:09:38,743 --> 00:09:40,417
There's no embalming,

178
00:09:40,441 --> 00:09:42,640
no heavy, metal caskets.

179
00:09:43,300 --> 00:09:45,505
My funeral home sells a few caskets

180
00:09:45,529 --> 00:09:49,281
made out of things like
woven willow and bamboo,

181
00:09:49,305 --> 00:09:53,028
but honestly, most of our families
just choose a simple shroud.

182
00:09:53,979 --> 00:09:57,819
There are none of the big vaults
that most cemeteries require

183
00:09:57,843 --> 00:10:01,162
just because it makes it easier
for them to landscape.

184
00:10:02,101 --> 00:10:05,633
Families can come here;
they can luxuriate in nature;

185
00:10:05,657 --> 00:10:08,334
they can even plant a tree or a shrub,

186
00:10:08,358 --> 00:10:11,360
though only native plants
to the area are allowed.

187
00:10:12,054 --> 00:10:15,793
The dead then blend seamlessly
in with the landscape.

188
00:10:16,259 --> 00:10:19,410
There's hope in conservation cemeteries.

189
00:10:20,091 --> 00:10:24,913
They offer dedicated green space
in both urban and rural areas.

190
00:10:25,747 --> 00:10:30,109
They offer a chance to reintroduce
native plants and animals to a region.

191
00:10:30,922 --> 00:10:32,895
They offer public trails,

192
00:10:32,919 --> 00:10:34,967
places for spiritual practice,

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

194
00:10:38,130 --> 00:10:41,282
places where nature and mourning meet.

195
00:10:42,451 --> 00:10:45,847
Most importantly,
they offer us, once again,

196
00:10:45,871 --> 00:10:50,998
a chance to just decompose
in a hole in the ground.

197
00:10:51,966 --> 00:10:53,355
The soil,

198
00:10:53,379 --> 00:10:55,047
let me tell you,

199
00:10:55,071 --> 00:10:56,600
has missed us.

200
00:10:57,155 --> 00:10:59,187
I think for a lot of people,

201
00:10:59,211 --> 00:11:00,808
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
00:11:06,298 --> 00:11:07,488
For many of us,

204
00:11:07,512 --> 00:11:11,923
being sanitized and beautified
just doesn't reflect us.

205
00:11:11,947 --> 00:11:15,176
It doesn't reflect
what we stood for during our lives.

206
00:11:16,014 --> 00:11:19,933
Will changing the way we bury our dead
solve climate change?

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

208
00:11:22,052 --> 00:11:24,077
But it will make bold moves

209
00:11:24,101 --> 00:11:27,631
in how we see ourselves
as citizens of this planet.

210
00:11:28,654 --> 00:11:33,262
If we can die in a way
that is more humble and self-aware,

211
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)