Boomers drive popularity of ‘green’ burials

FUNERALS USE A LOT OF RESOURCES EVERY YEAR THERE S ENOUGH METAL IN CASKETS TO BUILD THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE ENOUGH CONCRETE IN GRAVE MARKERS TO PAVE A TWO LANE HIGHWAY FROM DETROIT TO NEW YORK AND ENOUGH FORMALDEHYDE TO FILL 8 OLYMPIC SIZED SWIMMING POOLS AS GADI SCHWARTZ SHOWS US– THAT S WHY ONE SANTA FE MAN IS TAKING A VERY DIFFERENT APPROACH TO BURYING THE DEAD I think many conventional cemeteries feel odd and unnatural because death isn t intertwined with life as is the case with nature WALKING THROUGH A PLANNED BURIAL GROUND- JOE SEHEE EXPLAINS HOW THIS CEMETARY WILL BE UNLIKE ANY OTHER we re looking at here is Galisteo Basin and the Sierra Palon and ortiz mountains this is the burial ground in front of us we are in what will be the ceremonial place the plan is to do do burial enough to generate funds to acquire a thousand acres A VERY DIFFERENT VIEW THAN MOST ARE USED TO We humans have always had rituals to bury our dead sehee says things like embalming and metal caskets only date back to the american civil war what we think is traditional has only been around for a little more than a century SEHEE SAYS THE DESERT BURIALS WILL BE SIMPLE no metal caskets not formaldehyde based embalming no concrete burial vaults MEANING DRY ICE AND REFRIDGERATION FOR TRANSPORT- BIODEGRADABLE CASKETS- BURIAL SHROUDS- OR CREMATION in the spring when we begin burying bodies you will see some trails but markers will be trees out-croppings and tree stumps the idea is to bring as little on the land as possible it allows us to see that death is a part of life and the two are intertwined that there is always a sign of rebirth and that is what we have to hang on to SEHEE IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE GREEN BURIAL COUNCIL AND NEW MEXICO IS JUST ONE OF SEVERAL STATES WHERE THE FUNERAL INDUSTRY IS GOING