I read many articles today from newspapers all around the world. I visited sites from Hungary, Russia, Iceland, and some more. I was trying to find an interesting article somewhere around the world and I found what I was looking for in an Irish online newspaper called, Irish Independent.
It was actually a story from Sweden that an Irish journalist wrote about. When I saw the title of the article, I knew it was interesting but after reading it the adjective switched from an "interesting" article to a "creepy" one.
The title was "How green is your grave? Scientists get dead serious". As you may have already realized from my previous posts, I am quite a bit of a "green means and methods" advocate. However, after reading the article, I realized that I am nowhere close to being as green as some other creepy advocates.
Here is a summary of the story. A scientist from Sweden develops an alternative way of dying, in an ecologically sensitive way. This method is called freeze-drying. What they do with your body includes the following, as it is exactly explained in the original article:
First, the body is frozen. Then it is dropped into a liquid nitrogen bath, which cools it to a temperature of minus 192C (-314F). The water in the body dries up and the corpse becomes as brittle as glass. Thirdly, the body is placed in a vibrator, which quickly reduces it to a pile of pink-beige powder. Fourthly, a magnet is run over the remains to remove metal traces from fillings or pacemakers. Finally, the powder is put into a biodegradable pouch made of starch, such as potato, and buried. Between six months and a year later, the body has become mulch.
The Swedish scientist wants to process our bodies after we pass away as explained in the above quotation because:
- Cremation causes the release of belching dioxin and mercury emissions.
- Six-feet-under burial makes for very slow decay and often poisons underground watercourses.
I wonder if our creepy scientist has also got into account how much energy is supposed to be used in order to execute the freeze-drying process. You may ask what this has got to do with toxicating the natural resources. It has a lot to do. If a process (as green as it may be) requires more energy than its non-green alternative, it may be indirectly causing a lot more damage to the environment. More energy means dumping more subproducts of whicever energy generating method is being used to generate it.
This is a very similar to the plastic argument. Plastic has been the biggest enemy of all environmentalists although lately many of us believe the exact opposite. Plastic although is non-degradable requires so little energy to produce which indirectly supports preserving natural resources by reducing the energy dependency.
Enough about the scientific facts. Let me tell you one thing. Bottom line is that I do NOT want to be freeze-dried. Although now I know that this means I will toxicate the nature a little bit, I think I can live with this fact and die without it.
On July 20, 2007, Robin Givham wrote an article on Washington Post with a title: 
Pepsi-Cola finally decided to announce that the labels of Pepsi's Aquafina brand bottled water will be changed. Currently the labels state that the water you pay approximately $2 (20 Ounce) is "Bottled at the source P.W.S."
I thought this was a joke. Then I remembered the millions who chose to vote for Bush in the last elections. I guess nothing surprises me anymore.
