Pushing up Daisies

A speaker at the climate change roadshow I am organising for Oxfordshire’s FSB recently told us how polluting it is to die.

That’s right, we are terrible for climate change, you know.

Cremations comprise around 70% of UK funerals. Imagine, all those people every year, generating plenty of CO2. We are, after all, carbon based life forms, are we not? Apparently, 160Kg of CO2 is produced by a cremation. The New Scientist estimates 18 million cremations a year, worldwide. So what are the alternatives?

• The Swedish idea freeze-dry bodies to produce a perfect compost sounds fine, except that you need energy to do the freezing.
• Zoroastrians allow their dead to be consumed by vultures, which is carbon neutral, and supports the food web.
• Local burials in grassland with wild flowers and a tree of your choice seems a nice way to go

How about speeded up anaerobic digesters? Local energy production, courtesy of our forebears.