Embedded Files
has been such a gift and earning this graduate degree feels like only the beginning for me. While it wasn’t easy, I certainly did not do it alone. I had an amazing support system throughout the past ten years of my life, and that person is my husband Wesley. He has guided me throughout this educational journey, whether it was with me in tears or me within inches of feeling like giving it all up. I will always be grateful to have such an intelligent, generous, and loving partner by my side to review and edit any work I do or just give me a hug when I need it most. He is a blessing in my life. This dissertation would have not been so well organized or put together without my wonderful advisor Dr. Michael Cohen. He was incredibly generous with his time and intellect. For that, I am grateful. This dissertation would also not have any research or data to present without the kind participants of this study. I would also like to thank the Glasgow Caledonian community including my friends, fellow students, professors, and staff members. To be part of this community has been one of the greatest experiences in my educational career. Thank you for sparking something within me and allowing me to rise to the challenge. GREEN BURIAL: THE LAST FOOTPRINT 7 Chapter I: Introduction My interest in cemetery land use and green burials has evolved over time. While visiting a cemetery in Paris in 2017, I was struck by the enormous amount of land used and thought to myself, “Wow, what a waste of space.” In fear of offending both the dead that were resting there as well as the loved ones left behind, I kept these thoughts to myself. While I have had experiences with death throughout my life with most of my pets dying and a number of funerals attended, it has never been a topic I was uncomfortable with. TV has always been important in my life. It was a source of escape, entertainment, familial connection, education, and exposure to the world - and not surprisingly, my thinking and interest of green burials were galvanized by the seemingly endless deaths, burials, etc., that occurred on the HBO series The Sopranos. After starting a graduate program focused on sustainability, I realized that sustainability could be applied to any industry including death. I became fascinated with the topic of sustainability and death and decided that it was worth some digging. I was astonished to see books, articles, blogs, and even a movement behind this topic. There are even companies that exist today solely to help dispose of a human body with the least amount of environmental impact, such as Recompose, which transforms human bodies into the soil through human composting (Recompose, 2018). While digging for knowledge, I was excited to learn that green burials were actually not a new concept. In fact, going back to ancient times, simple and natural burials were a well-known practice and are “documented in the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran—the latter two requiring the deceased to be left in contact with the earth” (Rehagen, 2016). In modern times, our funeral practices have become so standardized and commonplace that we tend not to question them. GREEN BURIAL: THE LAST FOOTPRINT 8 Green burials challenge conventional funeral practices and social norms regarding death. Elizabeth Fournier, the author of The Green Burial Guidebook, states, “a green burial is a way to care for our dead with the least possible environmental impact” (Fournier, 2018). Essentially, a person is buried in a vessel that can decay along with the human body and retreat into the soil. The overall purpose is that nothing is used that doesn’t help renew the earth (Fournier, 2018). While my study seeks to investigate why the adoption of green burial practices as a healthy alternative to traditional practices in death has not become more popular, my intention for this dissertation was to reclaim death as part of our experience. My overall objectives include: offering insight into the environmental benefits of green burials; question convention and societal norms related to how death is handled in the United States; and raise awareness of the negative environmental impact of traditional practices. Importantly, this dissertation will hopefully leave readers more aware of the environmental problems in the world and thus, more likely to support environmental initiatives in the future. GREEN BURIAL: THE LAST FOOTPRINT 9 Chapter II: Review of Literature The Increased Interest in the Environment Human existence has an immense impact on the planet’s environment. Beginning with the industrial revolution and the dependency on fossil fuels this impact has been increasingly negative (Roser et al., 2017). During the past sixty years, there has been increasing concern, dialog, and action regarding reducing the negative impact of human activity (Ebbs, 2019). Concern and action are evidenced at the international, national, institutional, and individual levels across the private, public, and non-sectors (Ebbs, 2019). This global concern resulted in the multinational Paris Climate Agreement of 1998 (Ebbs, 2019). Initially sparked by environmentalists who were considered radical and extremist, the environmental movement quickly became mainstream and adopted by the baby boomer generation and included recycling, vegetarianism, organic produce, and natural childbirth (Reagen, 2016). By 1970, Earth Day was established and
Report abuse