By AnthroEvolve Cooperative, LCA

 

We Turned Death Into A Climate Problem

Somewhere, an ecologist is looking at our funeral industry and quietly screaming.

Every year, about 62 million humans die worldwide.
The average adult body mass globally is about 62 kilograms.

Do the math and you get roughly:

3.8 billion kilograms of freshly-minted human biomass
≈ 3.8 million metric tons of potential food for soils, fungi, worms, beetles, and scavengers… every single year.

Layer on top of that millions of pets: dogs, cats, and other beloved fluffballs. One estimate, combining U.S. pet-loss data with industry numbers, suggests 4.5+ million pets are cremated each year in the U.S. alone, contributing heavily to global cremation emissions.

Now take this mountain of nutrient-dense bodies and ask:

“How much of this ends up feeding ecosystems…
and how much becomes smoke, concrete, and lawn?”

Short answer: we’re leaking a ridiculous amount of organic wealth out of the planet’s life-support systems and turning death into a quiet climate liability.

• A single human cremation typically releases around 400 kg of CO₂.
• Pet cremations vary, but one review pegs them at roughly 80–230 pounds of CO₂ per animal, averaging about 155 pounds (~70 kg).

Death is inevitable.
The way we handle it? That’s policy, culture, and consumer choice.

The Great Biomass Heist: How We Broke The Energy Pyramid

Quick refresher: life runs on a very unglamorous, very real energy pyramid.

• Producers are the base: plants, algae, photosynthetic microbes. They turn sunlight into sugars and biomass.
• Consumers eat plants (herbivores), then each other (carnivores, omnivores) as you go up the steps.
• Decomposers & detritivores (fungi, bacteria, worms, beetles, maggots) feast on dead stuff and poop, shredding it back into nutrients plants can reuse.

The rude physics:

• On average, only about 10% of the energy at one trophic level becomes biomass at the next. The rest gets burned off as heat, motion, and daily life.

That means dead bodies and waste are not a side quest; they’re a major nutrient delivery system.

Detritus is a huge chunk of ecosystem organic material.

When we:

• Lock bodies in embalmed, metal-lined caskets inside concrete vaults, or
• Blast them at high temperature in fossil-fuel crematoria,

we’re effectively:

“Stealing from fungi and worms, tipping the plate into the sky, and then wondering why our soils are tired.”

In energy-pyramid terms, we’re interrupting that massive decomposer loop that takes detritus and recycles it back into plant-available nutrients.

Control Group: The Default Funeral Is An Ecological Crime Scene

1. Conventional embalmed burial: “Forever Chemicals & Lawn Maintenance”

The “standard” North American / European setup often looks like:

• Embalming with formaldehyde-based chemicals
• Metal or hardwood casket
• Concrete or metal burial vault
• Cemetery managed like a golf course: mowed grass, pesticides, irrigation

Environmental hits:

• Use of tons of metal, hardwood, and concrete for burial vaults and caskets every year.
• Embalming fluids can eventually leach into soil and groundwater.
• Land locked into low-biodiversity turf.

We take a body that could become mushrooms, soil, and wildflowers and instead turn it into an underground museum exhibit.

2. Flame cremation: “Road Trip To The Atmosphere”

Cremation solves the land-use issue but trades it for emissions:

• Each human cremation averages around 400 kg of CO₂, plus other pollutants (mercury from fillings, NOx, etc.).

Scale that across millions of deaths a year and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands of tons of CO₂ annually from human cremation alone, plus a growing slice from pets.

We’ve basically invented fossil-fueled decomposition.
Nature: “I can do this with bacteria and beetles.”
Us: “No thanks, I brought propane.”

Better Human Afterlives: From Vault Resident To Ecosystem Employee

Now for the fun part: less awful and sometimes downright beautiful alternatives.

1. Green / Natural Burial: “Compostable Human Packaging”

What it is:

• No embalming
• Simple biodegradable shroud or casket
• No concrete vault
• Graves in more natural landscapes (meadow, woodland, conservation area)

Definition-wise, green burial means full-body burial without toxic embalming, vaults, or non-biodegradable caskets.

Where it’s legal:

• In much of the U.S. and many other countries, this is legal as long as a cemetery offers it.
• There are dedicated natural and conservation cemeteries certified by organizations like the Green Burial Council.

Ecologically, this is the “back to the food web” default: your body feeds microbes, plants, and the local food chain directly.

2. Human composting / Natural Organic Reduction: “VIP Express Lane To Topsoil”

What it is:
Your body goes into a vessel with materials like wood chips, straw, and alfalfa. Warm air and controlled moisture let microbes work their magic. After about a month or so plus curing time, you become rich soil that can nourish forests or restoration sites.

Where it’s legal (U.S.)
As of 2024–2025, human composting is legal in a growing list of states, including:

• Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont
• California, New York, Nevada
• Arizona, Maryland, Delaware, Minnesota, Maine

…and others as legislation spreads.

Impact-wise, it:

• Uses much less energy than cremation
• Returns carbon and nutrients straight to soil instead of the sky

3. Aquamation (Alkaline Hydrolysis): “Gentle Stew, Lower CO₂”

What it is:
The body is placed in a pressurized vessel with water and alkali. Moderate heat and time break tissues down into a sterile liquid and bone fragments.

• No flame
• Less energy use
• No stack emissions from combustion

Where it’s legal (U.S.)
Alkaline hydrolysis is now legal in about 28 states, though not all have active providers yet.

Families then receive cremation-like remains; the liquid portion is treated like wastewater or, in some places, used beneficially in agriculture.

4. Donation To Science & The Body Farm Cameo

Medical & research donation:

• Bodies go to medical schools, surgical training, or research.
• After use, remains are usually cremated and returned or buried respectfully.

Forensic “body farms”:

• Example: the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF) at Texas State University’s Freeman Ranch near San Marcos, Texas. It’s a 26-acre outdoor human decomposition research lab, one of the largest “body farms” in the world.

These facilities place donated bodies outdoors to study decomposition in real conditions, helping investigators estimate time since death and solve crimes.

Ecologically, your body:

• Feeds insects, microbes, plants, and scavengers
• Helps scientists understand how landscapes and scavengers interact with remains

You literally become crime-scene data + ecosystem buffet.

5. Sky Burial: “The Vulture Buffet We’re Not Invited To”

Sky burial is a traditional practice in parts of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, and regions of India, where bodies are ritually prepared and offered to vultures and other scavengers at designated charnel grounds.

Ecologically, it’s incredibly efficient: your biomass goes straight into scavenger bellies and then back into the nutrient cycle.

But it’s:

• Tied to Vajrayana Buddhist beliefs,
• Heavily regulated, and
• Generally not accessible to non-local outsiders.

This belongs in your blog as a “respectful awe” example, not a travel hack.

Designer Ecologies: Reef Brains, Mushroom Suits & Conservation Cemeteries

Here’s the fun “I want to become habitat” menu, with legal context.

1. Reef Memorials: “Become Fish Real Estate”

Companies like Eternal Reefs in the U.S. and Resting Reef in the UK turn cremated remains into reef-style memorials:

• Ashes are mixed with reef-safe materials (like concrete and crushed shells) to make reef modules that are placed on approved seabeds, where they provide habitat for fish, invertebrates, and corals.

Where it’s legal / how it works:

• In the United States, burial at sea of cremated remains is allowed under a general permit, as long as it’s at least 3 nautical miles offshore and follows Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines.
• Reef memorial companies operate within those rules and obtain specific site permits for their artificial reefs (e.g., designated locations off Florida and other coasts).
• In places like the UK and pilot sites abroad (e.g., projects in or near Bali), memorial reefs are placed where local environmental regulators grant permits.

So legally, these services work where cremation is legal (which is almost everywhere) and where local authorities have approved artificial reef deployment.

2. Mushroom Coffins & Mycelium Suits: “Feed The Fungi”

The Loop Living Cocoon™, developed in the Netherlands, is a coffin grown from mycelium (the root-like network of fungi) and hemp fibers. It biodegrades rapidly and enriches soil.

• The first U.S. burial using this type of mushroom coffin was reported in Maine, indicating that U.S. cemeteries can accept them where their regulations allow biodegradable containers and green burial.

Where it’s legal:

• In the Netherlands, mycelium coffins are used in cemeteries that allow natural burial containers.
• In the U.S., they’re generally legal wherever green or natural burial is permitted and the cemetery approves biodegradable caskets (no extra vault, no embalming). Green burial standards explicitly support biodegradable coffins and shrouds.

Short version: if a cemetery offers green burial, a mushroom coffin is usually just a very cool flavor of “plain biodegradable box.”

3. Conservation Burial Grounds: “Donate Your Body To A Nature Preserve”

Conservation burial is natural burial on protected conservation land:

• No embalming
• No vaults or metal/hardwood caskets
• Burial density kept low
• Land permanently conserved via land trusts or easements
• Profits often help fund ongoing conservation management

The Green Burial Council certifies conservation burial grounds that meet strict standards for natural burial and land protection.

Where it’s legal:

• In the U.S., there are multiple conservation cemeteries (like Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery in Florida and others across several states), with more in development.
• Other countries are experimenting with similar models wherever burial law and conservation easements play nicely together.

This is the closest thing to:

“Your body becomes a permanent donation to biodiversity + a tax-deductible land project.”

What About Fluffy? Sustainable Pet Afterlives

We can’t talk human biomass and ignore the couch-goblin who watched you write your will.

The default: Pet cremation

• Traditional pet cremation (flame-based) is the standard in many vet clinics.
• Estimates for emissions range from 80–230 lbs of CO₂ per animal, with ~155 lbs (~70 kg) often used as a working average.
• With millions of pets cremated yearly in the U.S., the climate impact is… non-trivial.

Greener options for pets (where available)

1. Pet aquamation
• Uses the same alkaline hydrolysis process as human aquamation, but scaled for animals.
• Lower energy and emissions; some providers market it explicitly as an eco-option.

1. Pet green burial

• Pet cemeteries or dedicated sections of human cemeteries that allow biodegradable shrouds/boxes and no vault.
• In some regions, backyard burial of small pets is legal with restrictions (depth, distance from wells/streams); in others, it’s not. Local rules vary a lot, so this is a “check your municipality” situation.

1. Pet composting / farm programs

• Some animal composting facilities (especially for livestock) and a few specialized services accept pets, turning remains into soil used for non-food trees or restoration.
• Extremely location-dependent and heavily regulated.

1. Donation to science or wildlife centers

• Vet schools may accept certain animals for training or pathology.
• Some wildlife rehab centers may use carcasses to feed carnivores, where allowed.
• Again: very case- and jurisdiction-specific.

The pattern: wherever green human options exist, parallel pet options tend to emerge.

“Afterlife Budgeting”: Voting With Your Death Dollars

• We already vote with our dollars on food, fashion, banking, and energy.
• The funeral industry is just another supply chain with defaults shaped by culture and profit, not necessarily by ecology.

“Our last big purchase is also a vote.
We can buy a steel box, a concrete bunker, and a fossil-fuel flamethrower…
or we can buy time for forests, reefs, fungi, vultures, and future humans.”

What you can do:

• Put green burial, composting, aquamation, or conservation burial in your advance directives if they’re available where you live.
• Ask local funeral homes what eco-options they offer. If they say “none,” that’s information.
• If you donate to nonprofits, add land trusts, conservation cemeteries, reef and restoration projects to your list.
• For pets, ask your vet about aquamation or green burial options, not just default cremation.

“If every dollar is a vote, then every final invoice is a ballot too.
We can either fund more marble and emissions…
or we can feed a forest, grow a reef, or teach a forensic scientist how vultures recycle us.
Personally, I’m team ‘turn me into habitat.’” 🪦🌿

Sources & Further Reading

• Our World in Data – global annual deaths (~62 million/year).Our World in Data+2Wikipedia+2
• Walpole et al., “The weight of nations: an estimation of adult human biomass” – global average adult mass ~62 kg.PMC+2Live Science+2
• National Geographic & Khan Academy – 10% rule and trophic energy flow.Wikipedia+3National Geographic Education+3Khan Academy+3
• LibreTexts & Britannica – trophic pyramids, biomass, and decomposers.Wikipedia+4Biology LibreTexts+4britannica.com+4
• Green Burial Council & related docs – definitions of green and conservation burial.Higher Ground Conservation Burial+5NFDA+5Green Burial Council+5
• Better Place Forests, Phaneuf, and Earth Funeral – human composting legal states and status.Better Place Forests+2Phaneuf+2
• WorldPopulationReview, NFDA, and US-Funerals – aquamation legal in ~28 U.S. states.US Funerals Online+2World Population Review+2
• National Geographic / Guardian / funeral industry blogs – cremation emitting ~400 kg CO₂ per body.highlandlakescremation.com+3Serenity Ridge+3blog.davisstruempf.com+3
• Eternal Reefs & Resting Reef – reef memorials with cremated ashes; site-specific permits.Resting Reef+3Eternal Reefs+3Eternal Reefs+3
• U.S. EPA – burial at sea rules for cremated remains (3+ nautical miles offshore).EPA
• Loop Biotech & Ecowatch – mycelium coffin (Loop Living Cocoon), Netherlands origin and first U.S. burial in Maine.Loop Biotech+2EcoWatch+2
• Forensic Anthropology Research Facility at Texas State (Freeman Ranch body farm).The Texas Tribune+3Texas State University+3Wikipedia+3
• Tibetan sky burial & regional practice.Wikipedia+2Tibet Travel and Tours - Tibet Vista+2
• Pet cremation CO₂ estimates and global cremation emissions.www4.des.state.nh.us+3eternaltidesfmwf.com+3Tranquil Tides Pet Aquamation+3