A burial practice that nourishes the planet
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0:01 - 0:03When I die,
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0:03 - 0:08I would like for my body
to be laid out to be eaten by animals. -
0:09 - 0:14Having your body laid out to be eaten
by animals is not for everyone. -
0:14 - 0:15(Laughter)
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0:15 - 0:19Maybe you have already had
the end-of-life talk with your family -
0:19 - 0:23and decided on,
I don't know, cremation. -
0:23 - 0:26And in the interest of full disclosure,
-
0:26 - 0:32what I am proposing for my dead body
is not strictly legal at the moment, -
0:32 - 0:34but it's not without precedent.
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0:34 - 0:38We've been laying out our dead
for all of human history; -
0:38 - 0:40it's call exposure burial.
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0:40 - 0:44In fact, it's likely happening
right now as we speak. -
0:45 - 0:47In the mountainous regions of Tibet,
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0:47 - 0:49they practice "sky burial,"
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0:49 - 0:53a ritual where the body is left
to be consumed by vultures. -
0:54 - 0:59In Mumbai, in India,
those who follow the Parsi religion -
0:59 - 1:03put their dead in structures
called "Towers of Silence." -
1:04 - 1:06These are interesting cultural tidbits,
-
1:06 - 1:11but they just haven't really been
that popular in the Western world -- -
1:11 - 1:12they're not what you'd expect.
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1:13 - 1:18In America, our death traditions
have come to be chemical embalming, -
1:18 - 1:22followed by burial at your local cemetery,
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1:22 - 1:24or, more recently, cremation.
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1:25 - 1:28I myself, am a recent vegetarian,
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1:28 - 1:32which means I spent the first
30 years or so of my life -
1:32 - 1:34frantically inhaling animals --
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1:34 - 1:36as many as I could get my hands on.
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1:37 - 1:41Why, when I die, should they not
have their turn with me? -
1:41 - 1:43(Laughter)
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1:43 - 1:45Am I not an animal?
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1:45 - 1:50Biologically speaking,
are we not all, in this room, animals? -
1:51 - 1:54Accepting the fact that we are animals
-
1:54 - 1:57has some potentially
terrifying consequences. -
1:57 - 2:01It means accepting
that we are doomed to decay and die, -
2:01 - 2:05just like any other creature on earth.
-
2:06 - 2:10For the last nine years,
I've worked in the funeral industry, -
2:10 - 2:12first as a crematory operator,
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2:12 - 2:14then as a mortician
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2:14 - 2:17and most recently, as the owner
of my own funeral home. -
2:17 - 2:19And I have some good news:
-
2:19 - 2:25if you're looking to avoid the whole
"doomed to decay and die" thing: -
2:25 - 2:29you will have all the help
in the world in that avoidance -
2:29 - 2:31from the funeral industry.
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2:32 - 2:34It's a multi-billion-dollar industry,
-
2:34 - 2:37and its economic model
is based on the principle -
2:37 - 2:42of protection, sanitation
and beautification of the corpse. -
2:44 - 2:46Whether they mean to or not,
-
2:46 - 2:50the funeral industry promotes
this idea of human exceptionalism. -
2:51 - 2:52It doesn't matter what it takes,
-
2:52 - 2:54how much it costs,
-
2:54 - 2:56how bad it is for the environment,
-
2:56 - 2:59we're going to do it
because humans are worth it! -
3:00 - 3:02It ignores the fact
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3:02 - 3:07that death can be an emotionally messy
and complex affair, -
3:07 - 3:09and that there is beauty in decay --
-
3:09 - 3:14beauty in the natural return
to the earth from whence we came. -
3:15 - 3:17Now, I don't want you to get me wrong --
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3:17 - 3:20I absolutely understand
the importance of ritual, -
3:20 - 3:23especially when it comes
to the people that we love. -
3:23 - 3:27But we have to be able
to create and practice this ritual -
3:27 - 3:29without harming the environment,
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3:29 - 3:32which is why we need new options.
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3:32 - 3:37So let's return to the idea of protection,
sanitation and beautification. -
3:37 - 3:39We'll start with a dead body.
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3:40 - 3:43The funeral industry
will protect your dead body -
3:43 - 3:48by offering to sell your family a casket
made of hardwood or metal -
3:48 - 3:50with a rubber sealant.
-
3:50 - 3:54At the cemetery, on the day of burial,
that casket will be lowered -
3:54 - 3:57into a large concrete or metal vault.
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3:58 - 4:02We're wasting all of these resources --
concretes, metal, hardwoods -- -
4:02 - 4:05hiding them in vast
underground fortresses. -
4:06 - 4:09When you choose burial at the cemetery,
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4:09 - 4:14your dead body is not coming anywhere
near the dirt that surrounds it. -
4:15 - 4:16Food for worms
-
4:16 - 4:18you are not.
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4:19 - 4:23Next, the industry will sanitize
your body through embalming: -
4:24 - 4:26the chemical preservation of the dead.
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4:26 - 4:28This procedure drains your blood
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4:28 - 4:33and replaces it with a toxic,
cancer-causing formaldehyde. -
4:34 - 4:36They say they do this
for the public health -
4:36 - 4:39because the dead body can be dangerous,
-
4:39 - 4:41but the doctors in this room will tell you
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4:41 - 4:44that that claim would only apply
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4:44 - 4:49if the person had died of some wildly
infectious disease, like Ebola. -
4:50 - 4:53Even human decomposition,
which, let's be honest, -
4:53 - 4:56is a little stinky and unpleasant,
-
4:56 - 4:58is perfectly safe.
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4:59 - 5:03The bacteria that causes disease
is not the same bacteria -
5:03 - 5:05that causes decomposition.
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5:07 - 5:11Finally, the industry
will beautify the corpse. -
5:11 - 5:15They'll tell you that the natural
dead body of your mother or father -
5:15 - 5:17is not good enough as it is.
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5:18 - 5:19They'll put it in makeup.
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5:19 - 5:21They'll put it in a suit.
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5:21 - 5:25They'll inject dyes so the person
looks a little more alive -- -
5:25 - 5:26just resting.
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5:28 - 5:30Embalming is a cheat code,
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5:30 - 5:34providing the illusion that death
and then decay are not the natural end -
5:34 - 5:37for all organic life on this planet.
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5:39 - 5:44Now, if this system of beautification,
sanitation, protection -
5:44 - 5:46doesn't appeal to you,
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5:46 - 5:47you are not alone.
-
5:48 - 5:50There is a whole wave of people --
-
5:50 - 5:53funeral directors, designers,
environmentalists -- -
5:53 - 5:57trying to come up with a more
eco-friendly way of death. -
5:57 - 6:00For these people, death is not necessarily
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6:00 - 6:04a pristine, makeup,
powder-blue tuxedo kind of affair. -
6:05 - 6:06There's no question
-
6:06 - 6:10that our current methods of death
are not particularly sustainable, -
6:10 - 6:14what with the waste of resources
and our reliance on chemicals. -
6:14 - 6:16Even cremation,
-
6:16 - 6:20which is usually considered
the environmentally friendly option, -
6:20 - 6:22uses, per cremation,
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6:22 - 6:27the natural gas equivalent
of a 500-mile car trip. -
6:28 - 6:30So where do we go from here?
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6:31 - 6:35Last summer, I was in the mountains
of North Carolina, -
6:35 - 6:38hauling buckets of wood chips
in the summer sun. -
6:39 - 6:43I was at Western Carolina University
at their "Body Farm," -
6:43 - 6:47more accurately called
a "human decomposition facility." -
6:48 - 6:50Bodies donated to science
are brought here, -
6:50 - 6:54and their decay is studied
to benefit the future of forensics. -
6:55 - 6:56On this particular day,
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6:56 - 7:01there were 12 bodies laid out
in various stages of decomposition. -
7:01 - 7:03Some were skeletonized,
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7:03 - 7:05one was wearing purple pajamas,
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7:05 - 7:08one still had blonde facial hair visible.
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7:09 - 7:12The forensic aspect is really fascinating,
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7:12 - 7:15but not actually why I was there.
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7:15 - 7:18I was there because a colleague of mine
named Katrina Spade -
7:18 - 7:22is attempting to create a system,
not of cremating the dead, -
7:22 - 7:24but composting the dead.
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7:25 - 7:27She calls the system "Recomposition,"
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7:27 - 7:31and we've been doing it with cattle
and other livestock for years. -
7:32 - 7:33She imagines a facility
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7:33 - 7:36where the family could come
and lay their dead loved one -
7:36 - 7:40in a nutrient-rich mixture that would,
in four-to-six weeks, -
7:40 - 7:44reduce the body -- bones
and all -- to soil. -
7:45 - 7:46In those four-to-six weeks,
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7:46 - 7:49your molecules become other molecules;
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7:49 - 7:50you literally transform.
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7:52 - 7:55How would this fit in
with the very recent desire -
7:55 - 7:56a lot of people seem to have
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7:56 - 7:58to be buried under a tree,
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7:58 - 8:00or to become a tree when they die?
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8:01 - 8:04In a traditional cremation,
the ashes that are left over -- -
8:04 - 8:06inorganic bone fragments --
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8:06 - 8:09form a thick, chalky layer
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8:09 - 8:12that, unless distributed
in the soil just right, -
8:12 - 8:15can actually hurt or kill the tree.
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8:16 - 8:19But if you're recomposed,
if you actually become the soil, -
8:19 - 8:20you can nourish the tree,
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8:20 - 8:24and become the post-mortem contributor
you've always wanted to be -- -
8:24 - 8:26that you deserve to be.
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8:27 - 8:30So that's one option
for the future of cremation. -
8:30 - 8:33But what about the future of cemeteries?
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8:33 - 8:37There are a lot of people who think
we shouldn't even have cemeteries anymore -
8:37 - 8:39because we're running out of land.
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8:40 - 8:42But what if we reframed it,
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8:42 - 8:45and the corpse wasn't the land's enemy,
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8:45 - 8:47but its potential savior?
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8:48 - 8:50I'm talking about conservation burial,
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8:50 - 8:54where large swaths of land
are purchased by a land trust. -
8:55 - 9:00The beauty of this is that once you plant
a few dead bodies in that land, -
9:00 - 9:03it can't be touched,
it can't be developed on -- -
9:03 - 9:06hence the term, "conservation burial."
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9:06 - 9:10It's the equivalent of chaining yourself
to a tree post-mortem -- -
9:10 - 9:12"Hell no, I won't go!
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9:12 - 9:15No, really -- I can't.
I'm decomposing under here." -
9:15 - 9:17(Laughter)
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9:17 - 9:19Any money that the family
gives to the cemetery -
9:19 - 9:22would go back into protecting
and managing the land. -
9:23 - 9:28There are no headstones
and no graves in the typical sense. -
9:28 - 9:30The graves are scattered
about the property -
9:30 - 9:32under elegant mounds,
-
9:32 - 9:35marked only by a rock
or a small metal disk, -
9:35 - 9:38or sometimes only locatable by GPS.
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9:39 - 9:40There's no embalming,
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9:40 - 9:43no heavy, metal caskets.
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9:43 - 9:46My funeral home sells a few caskets
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9:46 - 9:49made out of things like
woven willow and bamboo, -
9:49 - 9:53but honestly, most of our families
just choose a simple shroud. -
9:54 - 9:58There are none of the big vaults
that most cemeteries require -
9:58 - 10:01just because it makes it easier
for them to landscape. -
10:02 - 10:06Families can come here;
they can luxuriate in nature; -
10:06 - 10:08they can even plant a tree or a shrub,
-
10:08 - 10:11though only native plants
to the area are allowed. -
10:12 - 10:16The dead then blend seamlessly
in with the landscape. -
10:16 - 10:19There's hope in conservation cemeteries.
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10:20 - 10:25They offer dedicated green space
in both urban and rural areas. -
10:26 - 10:30They offer a chance to reintroduce
native plants and animals to a region. -
10:31 - 10:33They offer public trails,
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10:33 - 10:35places for spiritual practice,
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10:35 - 10:38places for classes and events --
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10:38 - 10:41places where nature and mourning meet.
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10:42 - 10:46Most importantly,
they offer us, once again, -
10:46 - 10:51a chance to just decompose
in a hole in the ground. -
10:52 - 10:53The soil,
-
10:53 - 10:55let me tell you,
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10:55 - 10:57has missed us.
-
10:57 - 10:59I think for a lot of people,
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10:59 - 11:01they're starting to get the sense
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11:01 - 11:05that our current funeral industry
isn't really working for them. -
11:06 - 11:07For many of us,
-
11:08 - 11:12being sanitized and beautified
just doesn't reflect us. -
11:12 - 11:15It doesn't reflect
what we stood for during our lives. -
11:16 - 11:20Will changing the way we bury our dead
solve climate change? -
11:20 - 11:22No.
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11:22 - 11:24But it will make bold moves
-
11:24 - 11:28in how we see ourselves
as citizens of this planet. -
11:29 - 11:33If we can die in a way
that is more humble and self-aware, -
11:33 - 11:36I believe that we stand a chance.
-
11:36 - 11:37Thank you.
-
11:38 - 11:41(Applause)
- Title:
- A burial practice that nourishes the planet
- Speaker:
- Caitlin Doughty
- Description:
-
Here's a question we all have to answer sooner or later: What do you want to happen to your body when you die? Funeral director Caitlin Doughty explores new ways to prepare us for inevitable mortality. In this thoughtful talk, learn more about ideas for burial (like "recomposting" and "conservation burial") that return our bodies back to the earth in an eco-friendly, humble and self-aware way.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 11:54
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet | ||
Camille Martínez accepted English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A burial practice that nourishes the planet |