Blackened greens?
Is it just me or do you, too, feel that it seems like a long time ago since there was a consensus on climate change? I signed up to it because I met lots of people I liked and admired who had already subscribed and who read lots of books about it and quoted terrifying scenarios and insisted, “You must see this amazing thing on YouTube.”
I also signed up to it because I don’t understand science but I do trust scientists – in much he same spirit as Hugo Rifkind: “when I can’t be arsed properly to understand something, I tend to defer to those who can. I trust engineers to build bridges and I trust doctors to cure diseases. Likewise climatologists on man-made global warming. Most of them seem to believe in it. They might all be wrong, but they’re less likely to be wrong than I am. Call me a mindless stooge, but that’s good enough for me.”
Now, I guess, there are lots of us who are not so sure. There was the Climategate scandal: all those hacked emails which revealed, in the words of James Delingpole, “Conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more.” With this scandal came allegations that climate science is driven by a political agenda, post-normal science, which encourages its followers to suppose that it is quite all right to lie if the cause is noble. Again, Delingpole is the one who writes most attractively about this.
No wonder Peter Preston thinks we need an eco-prophet to galvanise us.
If people are going wobbly on climate change, I wonder how they’re feeling about this in the natural burial movement?
Labels: natural burial
posted by Charles Cowling at
12:52
2 Comments:
In the natural burial ground arena, most people seem to take a common sense view things - cremation, hardwood coffins and embalming are obviously bad for the environment; locally made wicker coffins and tree planting are good... The deeper scientific discussions on climate change do not seem to impact on a widely held common sense perception that natural burial is a good thing.
Sustainability is an overused and currently fashionable term, but for natural burial grounds it is a key issue...
Sadly, the majority of the general public are not savvy when it comes to the environmental credentials of individual natural burial grounds, which vary enormously. In the absence of a "Go Compare" comparison website for natural burial grounds, consumers should interrogate the burial ground operators about their long-term future plans for the land - what happens in 30, 50 or 100 years time, when the income from burials ceases? How sustainable is their long term future? Many trading under the "green burial" banner, have apparently little concern for long-term sustainability (but are profiting nicely in the meantime). Others can offer you well considered plans and more confidence, their natural burial grounds will be future assets, not long-term liabilities.
Do not accept fuzzy visions - some operators suggest that a wildlife trust will take over when the ground reaches capacity - but be sure to ask the wildlife trust before accepting this; they might well have a different view. Ask yourselves how can these places sustain themselves once the income from burials dries up?
The Natural Death Centre charity is also focused on providing consumers with independent funeral advice and has recently updated it's website to offer a nationwide directory of natural burial grounds with increased levels of information about burial grounds which are members of the Association of Natural Burial Grounds. This goes some way to help consumers make informed choices, but does not yet deliver the real nitty gritty concerning sustainability.
It is very game of Mr Leedham to draw attention to the value of defining and publishing information about the future status and maintenance policy and funding for so-called Natural Burial Grounds. 'Sustainability' is the sort of concept that bereaved families may be too distracted to discuss at the time they are contracting for a burial plot.
It would be interesting to know what plans he and his fellow trustees at the Natural Death Centre (and its project, the Association of Natural Burial Grounds) have for 'delivering the real nitty gritty concerning sustainability'.
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