A green departure from Planet Earth - alternative burials...

A green departure from Planet Earth - alternative burials...





NEWS: First published  at Fortitude.



by peter petterson



A green departure from Planet Earth — alternative burials to oldtime funerals, such as cremations, are increasingly becoming more popular. Yes, nearly half of burials in the western world are now cremations.



As land for cemeteries become increasingly more scarce with major cities extending for many miles in most countries, cremation has become increasingly more popular in recent times. About half of all funerals are cremations; something so very different from just a few years ago.



But there are other alternatives to traditional burials and cremations. Climate change is bringing in its own sets of regulations, such as emissions trading schemes etc.



A new option of burial for families' loved ones is now available on Queensland's Gold Coast — the world's first water cremation centre.



Aquamation:



The CEO of a company known as Aquamation Industries, John Humphries, has recently been interviewed by the media and had this to say about his company's new service at the ECO Memorial Park at Stapylton near Dreamworld.



He said Aquamation Industries uses a new process it hopes to revolutionise the funeral industry. 'Aquamation' is a new natural, ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional cremation — it uses water instead of fire to return a body to nature.



It is expected that this process will be available anywhere in Australia within a year — and undoubtably offshore soon afterwards.



John Humphries likens the process to that of a dead animal in the bush of Australia. It disintigrates into the natural state of things.



But with Aquamation we have what is a totally natural process, known as alkaline hydrolosis, in a stainless steel tube where the body is washed for four hours, creating the same breakdown of tissue as out in the bush, but at a faster rate. Mr Humphries also claimed support from the Catholic Church for the new technology.



He said further that the equipment is based on an experimental unit in America that uses extreme pressure and temperature to destroy the infectious remains of mad cow disease. Its a natural process, not an invented one.



The equipment has been redesigned so that water breaks down the cells and brings the body back to a chemical component, leaving just chalky bones which are returned to the family in an urn, just like the ashes of a traditional cremation.



This technology answered the demands of new European Union regulations that demand the reduction of mercury and pollution at crematoria by 2012.



Another green burial alternative to Aquamation:



There is another alternative to Aquamation itself, that results in the same return to nature. These are called biodegradable urns that reportedly suit the desire of the baby-boomer generation to have a 'green burial'.



These biodegradable urns, this time from America, also allow the return of a former life to nature. This is in return to those who advocate cremation and eco-friendly products.



Biodegradable cremation urns are designed to allow body remains to dissolve into the Earth.They are made using organic materials that are both drawn from and safe for the natural environment. One urn, called the Unity Heart, by its suppliers, The Light Urns, are actually made from Mulberry tree bark (a bark that sheds naturally). As they have no plastic or metal components at all, they just biodegrade naturally.



Another urn that is available is both beautiful and environmentally safe, and called the Shell Bio-urn; it is also made from ecological materials. This urn is designed for people who want to scatter the 'ashes' of their loved ones into the sea. The shell includes a water- soluble plastic bag for the cremains. Eco friendly glu is also used to seal the lid and designed to float for five minutes before decending beneath the waves. There is reportedly a large selection of urns to choose from.








































Published on Fortitude August 18, 2010

Copyright 2010 peter petterson

Times were a changing then - back to the nostalgic fifties...

 


Times were a changing - back to the nostalgic fifties...



ARTICLE: First  published at Fortitude



by peter petterson



As the years I've been on this planet actually begin to increase, time begins to peel back and thoughts turn to a different era. A different, less stressful and more peaceful time — back to those nostalgic innocent days of my childhood, down in the South Island of my homeland — New Zealand way down in the South Pacific.



Back to the 1950's when the population was half of what it is now, when New Zealand was Britain's farm, when inflation was something done to a football bladder,cars were a mixture of English and American; and Toyotas and Nissans were some unknown names along with karate back in Tokyo, and my hometown of Christchurch had as many bicycles as they do now. Peak hours would see hundreds of these push bikes streaming down the main street,(including mine on occasions), Colombo Street — about five and a half miles long with the title of longest street in New Zealand for decades.



Weekends were taken up with sport: mainly rugby union in the winter, and rugby league, soccer, and hockey having their followers, and outdoor basketball(as netball was called then). In summer there was mainly cricket, athletics and swimming. Softball would arrive very soon once the American influence began to infiltrate the former British colony a couple of thousands of miles off-shore from the West island — Australia. New Zealand was closed on the weekends then, no weekend shopping apart from a couple of areas in Christchurch's beach suburb of New Brighton, and up on Wellington's west coast in Paraparaumu.



In the summer the beaches attracted Kiwis by the thousands, and the tens of thousands on the other side of the Tasman Sea at beaches such as Bondi which would begin to attract New Zealanders too, in just a few years.



But out on the Canterbury plains Kiwis had almost an obsession with rivers on Sundays — picnicking up by the riverbeds, thermettes boiling away on the river banks with pristine water from the river. Firewood a plenty — and a .22 rifle packed in the trunk of the car for the inevitable pot shot at the pests of the plains — the damned wild rabbits. Those trunks have now been anglicised and are known as boots. Many a trip back home with the trunks filled with pine cones from the many plantations in the Canterbury area. No television in New Zealand in the fifties — no coca cola, pepsi or hamburgers either; but they were well on the way when the fifties turned to the sixties. Changes were on the horizon. The strongest thing most teens those days were some cold flagons of draught beer, or a bottle of Scotch if you could afford it — or scrounge it from your elders.



For me a couple of times a year, was a couple of weeks during the school holidays on one of the mixed farms — 30 minutes from town — dairy, sheep, pigs, poultry, crops and the annual haymaking. Could there be anything more healthy for a city boy with most of the food grown on site apart from a few staples — and fresh warm unpasterised milk straight from the cow? Great times as long as you watched your footing around the yards and cow bails. And yes, don't tease and antagonise that big black bull way out in his paddock.



New Zealand's foreign policy was British foreign policy — but change was on the horizon. Britain would join the European Common Market, and New Zealand would have to seek new markets for its primary produce, and that American Rock and Roll music would soon see Americans in person down Christchurch way as the American Deep Freeze program down south in the Antarctic in the New Zealand summer was based out by Christchurch Airport, and the American icebreakers berthed at Lyttleton Harbour, just over the Port Hills from Christchurch City.



Change was a coming, so was the coca cola, pepsi, hamburgers and American cream freeze ice-cream. Also in the New Zealand psyche just a few years in the future was a foreign southeast asian country named South Vietnam. The happy city boy would grow up and witness some real and significant social changes in New Zealand.



New Zealand would become a major mens softball world power in a few years too. Elvis would be joined later by names that would become world pop music icons — the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — and Vietnam would become a dirty word, and New Zealand's volunteer returned soldiers would have to be whisked in during the hours of darkness. Times were really changing!

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